The Descendants
by Nyx'sReincarnation
Summary: Zoey-Alice is found to be a descendant of the Goddess Asteria. Fuller summary inside. This isn't like the series... I only posted here because this is where I got my main idea from. See introductory note for more details. Enjoy and R/R! T for safety
1. Introductory Note

Introductory note:

Hello future readers,

Firstly, welcome to my story!

This is an original story idea that I had, but I got the idea of it from PJTO and HoN combined. Once you read, you'll see why. I'll give a more descriptive summary:

Zoey-Alice is found to be a descendant of the Goddess Asteria. She moves to the school where she'll finish her education with all the other descendants. Soon after she arrives, she learns that someone is sacrificing people for their power. Can she stop it before she herself is sacrificed? The worst part: her goddess tells her that the person doing the rituals is one of her best friends!


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: This chapter explains a lot of stuff, and I think the next few will as well. Unfortunately that means that there won't be much dialogue, so I apologize for that.

This took about three days to write, and I'll tell people who want to read this right now that I currently have stories on that I haven't updated in a month. Yeah, that happens. The worst part is that it's not even because I'm busy… it's just because I'm lazy. So what?

I also just lost this document, but my mum somehow found it for me… I don't even know where it is myself!

…sorry…

I'm also supposed to be doing homework right now, but whateves…

I have to give a huge thanks to my new beta amai-chan1993! You should check out the stories that come out of that account! AMAZING!

~! #$%^&*()_+ (AKA separator)

Chapter 1

I unscrewed the lid to my lip gloss with shaking hands. I would have to look my best for the tests. I pretended not to care about them, but then again I pretend not to care about a lot of things. I guess that's just how my life works. Shall I explain myself?

The reason I came to this school in the first place was because I wanted to be with my best friend. On my first day, she told me that the options were to either be with the In Crowd or be picked on. I was in the In Crowd at my old school, but it was relatively tame. Nobody did drugs, there weren't very many preps or bitches, it was just like being in any other group in the school.

I copied the personalities of some of the popular kids. . I was right there with them before the week had ended. The only problem was, the In Crowd at my new school was everything that the one at my old school wasn't. It was made up of girls who talked down to everyone who "wasn't at their level of trendiness" (and never would be). Even though I didn't like it, I had to hang out with them. I never told them about my real marks, and I never told them about how I really felt about their little group—I guess it was my little group now too.

This leads me to the reason my hand was shaking as it held the lid of my lip gloss, which was poised and ready to be applied.

"Hurry up Zaz!" Abigail complained from next to me. "We don't want to be late for the test…" she trailed off and then became her usual self. "Oh wait, yes we do. Take your time!" she giggled.

Zaz was the nickname she had given me. I hated it, but I wouldn't tell her that. She gave everyone nicknames. My real name is Zoey-Alice. Not just Zoey, but Zoey-Alice. It just sounds cooler to me. It also rolls off the tongue nicely.

Abigail (or Abi) was supposedly my BFF, but I'd bet everything that I owned on the fact that, if it came down to it, she would desert me as though we were never friends in the first place. Abi used to have another BFF, but she told Abi something that she didn't think mattered very much, but it was "too embarrassing to keep her as a friend. What kind of person in the In Crowd would ever be stupid enough to use cheap makeup?" I swear, Abi gets worked up over the smallest things.

I quickly applied the lip gloss as we walked out of the bathroom and into the gymnasium.

I normally didn't get this nervous about tests. I guess it's because this test could change my life. I know that seems a bit dramatic, but I swear it's true.

I sighed as I took my seat in front of the stack of exam papers waiting to be filled out. I didn't know why I was so nervous. The chances of me being picked were slim.

I still couldn't decide whether being chosen would be good for me or not. On one hand, I didn't like the person I was currently pretending to be. I could get a fresh start if I left for "better things". On the other hand, I would have to leave home and everything I cared about to have a second chance at actually liking a school. The problem is, I might get into the same situation that I'm currently in. I let the subject drop in my mind, clearing myself of all thoughts as I began the test. "Whatever happens, happens." I told myself firmly.

Some of the questions were easy, like What are your four favorite colors? And some were harder like How would your friends describe you? My friends were hardly friends, and they didn't know the real me. I didn't technically have a working answer. The way my friends saw me was the total opposite of who I really was.

When the test was finally over, I was even more nervous than before. I had tried to describe myself as honestly as possible. I had briefly thought about putting the opposite answers for everything so that if I was chosen I could tell them that it was all a joke, but I truly believed—and I still do—that if something is done it has to be fair.

The results came out about a week after the tests were taken, and let me tell you, it was the absolute longest week of my life. Every night I would wake up from dreams where I was the only one who was chosen, and I had the same mixed feelings about it that I had on the day of the test. I repeatedly told myself that whatever happened, happened, but even with that slight reassurance, the dream recurred, and there was nothing I could do about it. There was nobody I could tell about it—my "friends" would dump me and my mother would throw me out on the street.

My mum is very strange. On one hand, she hates the society that I had a one percent chance of joining, and on the other hand she believes in powers such as visions that take the form of dreams. If I told her that I had a dream about being chosen, she'd think it was really going to happen, and she'd save the humiliation by kicking me out of the house before it did. Therefore, it wasn't safe to tell anyone about my recurring dream.

The day that the names of our school's new "chosen ones" would be announced was decidedly the worst day out of all of them.

A PA speaker is set up for announcements in every classroom, but there would be a special assembly after lunch to announce the name of the people from our school who were chosen. Apparently it wasn't enough to have only your class staring at the poor people. Instead, they had to be humiliated by everyone in the school, and they had to stand up for all to see.

My morning classes dragged by slower than I thought possible. I thought I would be glad when it was finally time for the assembly. Let me just tell you right now, I was dead wrong. As soon as I walked into the gymnasium, my nerves started acting up. I wished I could just turn back time and be anywhere but here.

We all took our seats as the speakers crackled to life. My nerves jumped up another three octaves.

"Let's make this quick." The voice of the headmaster cut through the buzz of voices. Everyone instantly quieted in preparation for the announcement. I suddenly felt terrible for the people who would be chosen. Usually assemblies were a competition between the noise of the students and the speaker trying to make themselves heard, but not today. Today, everyone would bare witness to some of the poor people's first moments of knowing that they weren't just an ordinary human.

The headmaster put a small pile of papers on the podium, and then he read them word for word. I remembered this exact speech from last year. I didn't even bother listening, because I knew what it was about.

Every person all over the world who is sixteen has to take a test. The test determines whether or not they are descendants of a god or goddess. If you are a descendant, you get four powers that are similar to your ancestor's, and you live for about five hundred years.

Everyone who is chosen goes to this school, and there's only one in each country. You go to the school for five years, and then you are free to do whatever you want. That's the short version of the five minute speech.

The In Crowd of this school thinks that being the descendant of a goddess would be pretty cool, but that's because there's power involved, and power to them is like food and water to a normal person. Most humans are either afraid or envious of the descendants. People are afraid of the Goddesses because they're powerful, and people are envious of them for the same reason. You can tell what kind of person someone is just by asking them what they think of the Goddess society. If they wish they had been the one that was chosen, they are probably power-hungry.

I only tuned back into the speech when I heard my name being called. I snapped my head up to see the headmaster staring at me along with the rest of the school.

There was only one thing that crossed my mind at that moment.

I was one of the ones who they'd chosen to be a Goddess.

I guess my dream was actually a reality.

My entire body was shaking as I stood up for everyone to see.

As I stood up, I noticed something else. I was the only one who they'd found. Out of the whole school, I was the only descendant.

~! #$%^&*()_+

A/N: I just have one question. Honestly, does anyone think I need a beta? I'm trying hard to actually beta for myself, but I know that I don't catch everything. Please be honest with me! I love criticism, so be harsh!

…Just one more thing: if anyone flames me, I will flame them right back.

Tarah xXx


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: This is the longest chapter I've ever written for FP and FF yet! Enjoy!

Huge thanks to my new beta amai-chan1993! YOU rock!

Chapter 2: The Journey

I made my way to the front of the gym to pick up the package that contained all the basic information about descendants in it, as well as a plain ticket to the nearest school for my kind.

I held the envelope in front of my face as I made my way out of the gym. I wished desperately that everyone would stop staring at me, yet I knew they wouldn't. I could only imagine the thoughts that were running through people's heads. They were probably things like, "I wish I was her…" or "Thank god it wasn't me!" or maybe "Ah well… I feel bad for her." The only thing I knew was that there was nobody who cared about me as a person. The only people who even cared about anything that had to do with me only cared about the place I was taking as a descendant of a god or goddess.

I tried not to care about what people thought of me. It was something that my mother had tried to get me to do for years. If everyone hated me, I would eat alone at lunch time, using everything in me to pretend I didn't hear what people would say about me. Of course, that wouldn't happen here. I was part of the popular crowd. The school I was about to go to, on the other hand…

My thoughts turned next to my journey. I thought about what it would be like to walk through the airport with my eyes swirling with four different colors. Some people may think this is the most random fact in the world, but honestly it isn't. I guess I should explain some more…

If there was a model and a descendant standing side-by-side, you could easily tell which one was the model. Even though they would have equal beauty, each descendant has four different colors that make up their eyes. We were told this is because each one can control four powers, each of the colors representing a specific power. There is literally a list of the colors that correspond with the individual powers. In other words, you can tell what powers a descendant has simply by looking at their eyes.

Since I'd just been chosen, I knew that my eyes would soon change color. I don't know how exactly it happens. All I know is that before last year's descendants had left the gym, their teary eyes were swirling with colors that somehow looked like they belonged there. I was positive that I'd never seen anything like it. I'd never actually met another descendant before.

As soon as I was out of the gym, I ran to the bathroom. The assembly had probably been let out as soon as I was gone, and I didn't want to be swarmed with students at the moment. Sure I was popular, but if they saw me now, I would become something… different. Some people would look at me as though I was a real goddess, some would regard me as nothing more than dirt, and others who were my friends would glance at me and then look spitefully away.

As soon as the bathroom door closed behind me, I was in a stall. I locked the door for safety, and then I opened the package I was given.

Inside the package, I found firstly a plain ticket to Toronto, Ontario. For a moment, I wondered why on earth I would need that. And then I remembered that I'd just been chosen… I felt stupid for even wondering.

Next, I found a list of stuff I had to bring with me titled "Necessities:"

Clothing (not too much)

Shoes

Toiletries

Spending money for between paychecks

Comfort items

It was a fairly short list, and it left me a bit more reassured about what I was getting myself into.

The next piece of paper that I found was a list of the eye colors and what they meant. There was also a description of how people's gifts were chosen.

When a descendant is found, they get four gifts from their god or goddess ancestor. One is control over an element, one is helpful, one is knowledgeable, and one is fun. The color that is written beside the gift corresponds with the eye color.

The gifts are chosen in specific ways, so that it is rare that two people would have exactly the same gifts. When a rare occurrence like this happens, the two people whose gifts are the same are called "gifted twins".

The elemental gift is the same every five years. For example, in 2010 the people who will be found to be descendants in sixteen years will be able to control air. In 2011, the people who will be found in sixteen years will have control over fire. In 2012, the people who will be found in sixteen years will have control over water, and etc. The cycle repeats once it is finished.

Power over a helpful affinity is chosen by the month. For example, if your birthday is in January, May or September, you will be able to heal people physically and emotionally. If your birthday is in February, June or October, you will be able to shield people against mental attacks and so on.

The fun gifts are chosen depending on which day you're born on. For example, if you were born on January fifth, tenth, fifteenth, twentieth and etc, you will be able to shape shift. If you were born on January sixth, eleventh, sixteenth, twenty-first and etc, you will be able to detect when someone is telling lies…

The knowledgeable gifts are chosen depending on the hour you were born. For example, if you were born at four AM, eight AM, 12 PM and etc, you will have visions of the future. If you were born at one AM, five AM, nine AM, one PM and etc, you will be able to read minds.

All the gifts are in the order of where they're located in their cycles.

**Elements **

Air silver (perhaps you should put a dash between, like 'Air-silver'

Fire dark red

Water royal blue

Earth dark green

Spirit gold

**Helpful:**

Healing (physical and emotional) light turquoise

Shield (mental) light pink

Shield (physical) hot pink

Convincing light lime green

**Fun:**

Shape shifting dark brown

Lie detector orange

Enhanced senses coral

Invisibility black sparkly

Teleportation grey

**Knowledgeable:**

Clairvoyance white

Mind reading beige

Memory scanning dark purple

Absolute knowledge sky blue

The sheet clearly showed that if I was born on January twenty-fifth 1995, I would be able to control air, I would be able to heal and shape shift, and I would have visions of the future. I checked the list again. My eyes would be silver, turquoise, brown and white if I had the gifts that I thought I had.

There was also a general fact sheet, but I already knew most of the stuff that was on it. The only thing I didn't know was that descendants get their energy by feeding off either their gifts or the energy of the people around them. I looked forward to learning how to do that. It sounded interesting to me for some reason.

Just as I was about to come out of my stall, I heard the high-pitched screach of the bathroom door being pushed open, and I heard two sets of footsteps coming in. They were probably coming in here to talk. I would be the stupidest person alive to come out of my stall right about now. They would probably find a way to drive me out of the bathroom and into the hallways that were packed with jealous and/or hateful students.

When the door opened, I could hear the loud chatter coming from the hallway that meant students were going to their afternoon classes. I had been right to head straight for the girl's bathroom after all.

"I can't believe she was actually a descendant!" the first voice was high, and I recognized it as Ashley, the leader of the In Crowd. We were kind of friends, but she was overly pissed that "someone like me" would "worm her way" into the upper echelon of school. I wasn't surprised that she was in here talking about me.

The thing that surprised me more was the second voice. "I know, right? I mean, I made myself seem, like, so awesome! I can't believe they found her! I think I should, like, tell the people for next year that, like, if they want to get in, all they have to do is, like, pretend they're nerds who're, like, afraid of the cool people." The girl laughed, and chills ran up my spine. She sounded so hateful, but I knew she was only jealous. Then again, jealousy can easily lead to much more dangerous things if it isn't dampened. I was suddenly really mad, and I got even angrier when I matched the voice to that of my "BFFL" as she called it.

Abi's hateful words towards me were what lead me to make the really bad decision to come out of my stall. I quietly stuck the package that I'd been given up the back of my shirt so that the two girls wouldn't see it. I slipped the lock opened, making sure it didn't make any noise whatsoever.

If there was one thing I'm proud of about this situation, it's that I somehow matched her laugh perfectly.

I caught the last three seconds of her laugh, adding mine to it. She looked up in surprise when she heard it, and her laugh choked off to a gasp. Her hate-filled eyes turned their full glare on me.

I frowned, acting calm, clueless and nonchalant. (")I thought we were friends…" I said.

She laughed. "Nope!(") She said gleefully. I knew why she sounded happy. She was proud of herself for telling me that she didn't need a descendant as a friend. Even she knew that it was what she really wanted, but it would mean that she wouldn't be popular, which was a price she wasn't willing to pay. If there was one thing that I learned about her, it was that nothing could get in the way of her need for popularity. She "needed it like all the other uncool peeps in the world need food and water".

I dropped my façade and said what I was finally thinking for once. What harm would it do? I was leaving anyways. "We all know you don't mean that. Everyone can tell that it's your biggest dream to be a descendant. Too bad it won't happen."

Judging from the look on Abi's face, I could tell that what I'd said had the exact effect I was looking for. Her eyes got really big, and her teeth clenched together. She was mad, but she didn't know what to say.

Judging from the look on Ashley's face, I'd definitely said something right. She looked terrified and confused. If I could guess what she'd be saying right now, it would be something like, "You actually wish that you were a descendant? Like, actually? OMG! That's ridiculous and, like, so wrong on so many levels!"

I walked to the mirrors in the bathroom and looked at my eyes. They were the exact colors that I thought they'd be. A ring of brown rimmed the iris. It wouldn't be thought to match with the other colors, but somehow it did. The silver was the ring that was closest to the pupil, and it spread out into the turquoise. It reminded me of when you squint at the sun, how it almost looks like there are streaks coming out of it from all sides. There were also flecks of white that looked like snowflakes that were spread out over the whole iris. My new eye color was quite pretty.

My other attractive features had been enhanced as well. My full lips were even fuller, my chocolate brown hair became more shiny and curly, and my figure seemed skinnier and more muscular. I'm not usually one to stare at my reflection, but I couldn't help it. I used to be pretty, but now I was gorgeous!

I only looked away from the mirror when I heard loud voices coming from behind me. Just then, I remembered the two girls that were in the bathroom when I'd gone to the mirror about two minutes before. I immediately felt stupid for forgetting about them. I wasn't usually so vain as to not notice my surroundings when there was a mirror in front of me…

"I, like, can't believe you actually want to, like, have anything to do with a descendant!" Ashley was shrieking.

Abi had her emotionless mask on, and I knew exactly what was coming. I would have gotten out of there ASAP if I knew that the hallways were empty. Unfortunately, the only way to find out was by passing the fighting girls and opening the door to the bathroom. I was unwilling to do either of those things.

Ashley paid no attention to Abi's expression as she continued. "I mean, they're, like, such fakes! Everyone knows there's no such thing as super pow—"

Abi's hand slapping across Ashley's face cut off the end of her sentence. Her calm façade dropped into a look of anger and hatred. "So you're, like, ditching me from your stupid group because I said it might be, like, cool to have a descendant as a friend? I mean, like, everyone who counts has, like, the same opinion as I do!"

"Well, I don't care!" Ashley screamed right back. "Nobody else has ever said anything about it! How do I know you're not just saying that so I'll let you be cool again? HUH?" Their fight reminded me of a teen-aged version of pre-school or something. Everything depended on what the leader said.

Abi had nothing to say to that. Her expression would have made me laugh if it didn't mean that I would have two girls who hated my guts band together and attack me if I did. Her mouth hung open like a gaping fish, and her eyes were darting around as if she was physically looking for something to say. This was an expression that she only had once in the two years I'd known her when a boy had resisted her charms.

Ashley wasted no time in getting the hell out of that bathroom. She knew as well as I did that Abi would blow up if one more thing was said against her.

As soon as Ashley was gone, Abi did something that totally confused and surprised me. She bowed her head, letting her long light-brown hair fall around her like it was a shield to separate her from the rest of the world. I could see little droplets of water falling onto her chest. She was crying!

There were two reasons that this surprised me. Firstly, I'd only known her as a shallow character. She cared about herself, and not even the death of her sister made her cry. The second reason was that I knew her to be the kind of person who would fight fire with fire. She always had something insulting to say to anyone who even looked at her as though she wasn't all that.

I was tempted to comfort her, but despite the two years we'd been "friends", I suddenly felt as if I really didn't know her that well. She may be someone like me for all I know—someone who was only trying to fit in. Maybe I'd judged her wrong the whole time…

The next thing she said made me believe completely in the new side of her. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you a few minutes ago." She said, her voice thick with what could only be real, genuine tears.

"It's… ok…?" I said, but it came out as more of a question than a reassurance. I'll tell you right now, I CAN NOT I repeat CAN NOT deal with people crying. I just don't know how. I get really uncomfortable…

I searched for something to say. Finally, I pulled out the envelope, searching desperately for the plane ticket inside.

It seemed like I was in luck today. Not only was there a plane ticket, but it also showed that my plane left in two hours. That gave me just enough time to go home, pack my stuff and make it to the airport an hour before the flight was scheduled to leave. I used that as my excuse, and I quickly slipped out of the bathroom.

Thankfully the hallways were empty—all the students were in their classes. Hopefully there would be nobody on my way out.

I went to my locker, quickly gathering my belongings and leaving the rest—books and scribblers—for someone else to find. With my belongings in hand, I jogged to the front doors of the school.

Pushing them opened, I stepped into the dizzying heat of an unusually hot and sunny September day. For a moment, I stopped and squinted, getting my eyes used to the light. Then I continued the jog to my car.

~! #$%^&*()_+

A half hour later, I reached my house. My mum was home early like she was every Thursday. As I grabbed my stuff from the car and headed to the house, I mentally braced myself for the moment she saw me.

Taking a deep breath, I slipped my key into the door. It went in smoothly, and I heard the distinct clunk of the lock moving. I opened the door, trying to act as casual as possible.

As soon as I was in, I dropped my stuff and ran to my room. First, I went to the window, shutting the drapes and blocking off all the light that was coming into my room. I then grabbed the biggest suitcase I owned and started shoving everything and anything into it, checking things off on my mental list as I went.

About five minutes into my packing, my mum came up to see what the heck was going on. I knew it would happen eventually, which is precisely why I closed the drapes. I prayed to any god or goddess that would listen that she wouldn't notice my eyes.

"…What are you doing?" mum asked, walking into my room.

"I'm leaving." Was my short and curt reply.

"What? Where? Why?" my mum asked. Obviously she hadn't been expecting my answer.

"Because I want to." I replied, only answering her last question. I could easily lie, but it was best to tell as much of the truth as possible in this situation.

Mum looked genuinely hurt. "Did I do something? What brought this on?" she asked. Her expression made me melt. What else was there to do but tell the whole truth?

I sighed. "I'm a descendant." I said shortly. "I have to leave."

She raised her eyebrows in shock for a moment. Then she reacted to my news in a way that I never would have expected. "At least let me drive you to the airport." I was surprised that she wasn't upset. Like I said, she had an image that she always protected, no matter what. Not only did she refrain from exploding at me, she also didn't tell me that it was all my fault and that I brought the whole mess on myself. Something was definitely up.

She came to sit on my bed. "I hoped you wouldn't have to find out this way hon, but you were adopted. Nobody in my family is a descendant. We were hoping that you wouldn't be either. Now that it's happened, I'm starting to think maybe it isn't so bad after all. I know more than you think about what's going on at school, my darling. It's not healthy to be in your situation."

I was completely shocked. I'd never even suspected that I was adopted. I looked a lot like my mom, so there wasn't a reason to suspect it. I had no idea what to say. What was there to say? How could I tell her that I forgave her if I didn't? I wasn't even shocked when she admitted to knowing about my popularity issues. I didn't even care. What could I say?

She seemed to take my silence to mean that I needed time to absorb the information. She sighed, patted me on the shoulder and left me to my packing.

Ten minutes later I exited my bedroom, suitcase in hand. Before I reached the stairs, my mother's footsteps could be heard walking across the kitchen floor on the level below. I sighed as I slowed my pace. I knew that she wanted to talk about the matter of my adoption but I didn't have anything to say. I wanted to avoid having the conversation at all costs.

Right at that moment, I remembered the fact that she would be the one to drive me to the airport. Again, I sighed. The conversation that she wanted from me would be impossible to avoid.

She was waiting for me as I reached the bottom of the stairs. I pretended not to notice her as I put on my shoes and grabbed the keys to my car. "Can't we talk about this?" I could tell from the thickness in her voice that she'd been crying.

I turned to face her. "I'm sorry. I don't have anything to say." I replied.

"How do you feel about being adopted?" she grabbed my suitcase and opened the door, ignoring my statement.

I grabbed my carry-on and followed her out. "That's just it! I don't know. I mean, it's shocking because we look so much alike, and I'm angry that you didn't tell me sooner…: (") I trailed off. I hadn't meant for all that to come out.

She just smiled at me. "We won't talk about it if you don't want to." She said as we got into the car.

We drove along in silence for about ten minutes before she finally spoke up. "The story was that I had you while I was in school. I knew you'd ask about your father. The truth is that I did have a baby while I was still in high school, but I put her up for adoption. As soon as she was gone I regretted it. I knew that if I adopted, everything would be so much more difficult, but I didn't care. Once you have a child, you'd do anything so that they'd always be safe and happy. That's why I adopted you."

Again, I didn't know what to say.

We drove the rest of the way to the airport in silence.

~! #$%^&*()_+

I reached the airport thankfully unharmed. I went around and grabbed my suitcase from the trunk, dragging it behind me as I entered the main airport door. My mum followed me in. As soon as we got to the point where she couldn't go any farther with me she gave me a long hug. "I'm sorry." She said simply. I smiled in return.

I managed to reach my gate with about forty minutes to spare. Those forty minutes would be tedious. I sighed and took out my IPod. Music always helped me pass time quicker. It also didn't help that I checked my watch every five minutes…

When there were about five minutes until my boarding time, I remembered that I could check the little arrival screen on the wall that says when flights are on time. Needless to say, I was there before you could say "boo". Other passengers were staring at me like I was crazy, and I couldn't really blame them. I was acting like I had too much coffee for lunch…

About ten minutes and twenty-seven seconds later (I wasn't counting), the first calls for my flight were being announced in French and English over the loud speakers. I was one of the first in line to get on.

I had no idea why I was so fidgety. As I not-so-patiently waited for the plane to take off, I tried to figure it out. Maybe it was because I was about to start a new life that I knew absolutely nothing about. I tried to figure out if I was excited about that or not, as it helped pass the time a bit. In my head, I made lists of the pros and cons of being a descendant.

By the time I came out of my own little world, the plane was in the air. I sighed and laid my head back on the generic plane seat head rest. I was starting to develop a nasty headache, and I didn't have any Advil on me.

The next thing I knew, my world went black as the silky comfort of sleep pulled me under.

I was jolted awake by a distinct bump. I wondered how long I'd been asleep. When I looked down at my watch, I was surprised to find out that we had probably just landed. My guess was confirmed when the plane slowed down, and an announcement came over the speakers to "please leave our seat belts on until the sign went off".

When the door to the cabin opened, I was the first one to stand. I opened the compartment above my head, fully intending to grab my carry-on. I think I forgot to do it carefully like the messages that came over the speaker advised. I felt a hard object hitting my head before everything went black. The thing that scared me about this black was that it wasn't the unaware sleep black that I was used to. It covered my body in a thick suffocating wave. I thought I could hear distant voices, but I couldn't focus. All I wanted to do was sleep, so that's what I did. I let the blackness pull me under further and further…

~! #$%^&*()_+

A/N: Sorry it took so long! Sometimes I just don't have inspiration to write anything, even though I have amazing ideas… ok my ideas aren't amazing, but they're still there… meh… Actually, on some of my other fics on FF, I haven't updated for three months. I'm sure everyone hates me for it too.

Sorry if I didn't get the different parts of the airport right… I haven't been there for a month. (That makes me sound spoiled… which I kinda am… oops…)

I know that usually teenagers don't think or talk like this, but that's how I write. Whenever I write something that other people will see, I always go all proper on them… sorry!

I just want to tell you right now, I really don't believe in those stories where the main character is all-powerful and perfect and stuff. I hope this doesn't turn out like that, but if it does, I'd like to hear from you please!

I have a fear that people won't understand what I'm trying to say in some cases. I've read things like that before, and trust me it doesn't make the story enjoyable. If you have questions, please ask them!

Tarah xXx


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: I sat here for an hour trying to figure out people's names and all I can say is that it's harder than you think it'd be. Without internet, there isn't much of a way to get information… I even had to resort to using my memory stick of class notes from last year!

Thanks sooooo much to my beta amai-chan1993! Amazing work I tell you!

~! #$%^&*()_+

Chapter 3: The Dream

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was a bright white light. I instinctively flinched and closed my eyes. When I re-opened them, my vision had cleared enough to see that I was actually staring at... well... a light. I felt kind of stupid for not noticing it before, but I quickly brushed it off.

Looking around me, I noticed I was in a small room that looked suspiciously like a hospital, minus the heart monitor and IV drip. All the walls were white and bare. There was one window on the right side of the bed, but there was a curtain drawn over it, so I had no way of telling if it was day or night. The only thing I knew was that my watch said 8:30, and for all I knew it could be 6 hours off. The only other things in the room were a cabinet and a single chair beside the bed.

I lay back down on the bed and sighed. For some reason, I couldn't remember what had brought me here. What had happened to me? More importantly, where was I exactly.

The first thing that came back to me was a single random question: "Where's my sunglasses and luggage?"

I thought about the question for a while, but I couldn't think of the answer. It seemed the harder I thought about it the farther the answer buried itself in my mind. It reminded me of those nightmares when you're trying to catch something that moves two steps for every one you take.

I looked down at myself, noticing that I was still wearing normal clothes. I then thought of what to do in this situation, being in a foreign place, unaware of what to expect. Taking a deep breath, I stuck my hand in my pocket. The first thing my hand came in contact with was hard and extremely slim. One side was slippery and smooth while the other side was rough and textured. Curiously, I pulled it out for inspection. As soon as it was within my sight, I realized that it was a mirror. I again felt stupid for not realizing that from the beginning. I looked at my reflection. As soon as I saw the eyes that stared back at me, everything came rushing back in a swirl of colors and sounds.

I didn't have time to wonder where I was, because a lady walked into the room, scaring the living daylights out of me. I hadn't even heard her coming. I only noticed her when she started speaking.

She had a slim face that was framed by glossy-looking, pin-straight golden-blonde hair. Her almond-shaped eyes fit perfectly on either side of her long nose. Her full lips were pulled up in a brilliant smile that showed her large dimples.

The descendant didn't seem to notice that she'd scared me. "Hello Zoey-Alice," she said pleasantly. Her voice rang with authority and calmness. I vaguely wondered how she knew my name, but then I realized that she probably knew it because I'd been found. Again, I felt really stupid.

"H-Hello," I replied. She didn't seem to notice the slight tremor in my voice as I spoke, and I was glad for that. I didn't exactly want to appear nervous. I suppose you could say that I'm the kind of person who says and does things as they are. I've gotten in trouble because of it, which is why I don't believe in the saying "the truth will set you free".

"I suppose you want to know what's going on." the woman said, breaking me from my thoughts. (")My name is Phoebe after the Goddess of Light, and I am the Reincarnation for the Canadian Goddess Society Learning Center, GSLC for short. You are in our hospital right now. You hit your head pretty hard on that luggage compartment, didn't you?" she asked, looking concerned.

I grinned sheepishly. "Actually, my baggage fell on my head... I wasn't exactly careful when I opened the compartment..." Her laughter cut me off, and I had to join in. I thought it was pretty funny even though it hurt. Actually, now that I thought about it, my head felt perfectly normal now. It didn't feel like I hit it at all.

"Why doesn't my head hurt?" I asked after we'd stopped laughing and caught our breath.

Phoebe looked at me for a moment, her expression one of contemplation. Finally she said, "I think it's because you have the gift of healing. Your gifts always help you whenever they can, even if you aren't controlling them." she explained. "Oh yes, that brings me back to what I came here for. I have an information sheet about each of your gifts for you. I also have your class schedule, a list of extra curricular activities that you can join and a map of the campus here." she said, passing me a small stack of papers. "Oh yes. Also, your god or goddess might not be the one that officially represents your main gift. If he or she isn't, they'll tell you which gift is your main one. Of course, there are some people who's god or goddess does actually represent their main gift. In that case, your main gift will be more powerful."

(")There's one other thing." she added. "Your features will change slightly so that you will look like your ancestor more. For example, you may grow a bit or your hair might slightly change color. Another important thing you should know is that one in every ten descendants of each god or goddess is the reincarnation of that deity. On top of the four gifts that they have, they also have an extra ability that comes from the Goddess herself. The reincarnations are usually trained to become the leader of a GSLC."

I nodded in understanding. "So I should know by tomorrow?" I clarified.

"You should know by tomorrow." she confirmed warmly. "Right now, it's ten to nine, so I'll show you to your room. Your luggage is waiting for you there."

Five minutes later, I was dismissed from the infirmary. I walked with Phoebe down the hall and out the door.

The evening was calm and quiet. There was a slight moisture in the air that promised rain. The air itself was a perfect temperature. The only sounds that could be heard were the wind playing a gentle melody through the treetops, and the birds singing a sweet and complicated reply. The sound of flowing water in the distance intricately wove the two together, making my excited jitters instantly fade to a feeling of deep peace.

"It's a nice night, isn't it?" Phoebe's voice startled me. I looked up, only to notice that I had stopped in my tracks right outside the doors to the infirmary.

"It is." I replied softly. I was almost afraid to make too much noise in case the spell over me was broken.

I looked around at the landscape of the outdoors and gasped. From where I stood, I could see what I assumed was most of the campus. All the buildings were in a circle. The middle was like a miniature valley. There were hills that all came down to the place where a flat surface should be. Instead, there was a fountain/pond. It was perfectly round, and it was about 30 or 40 feet across. The hill leveled out about 5 feet before it hit the pond, creating a stone walkway all around it. The walkway was about a foot above the water level. There was a railing around the edge of the pond, but there was also an area where there were stairs going right into the water. For that reason, the large pool of water reminded me of a swimming pool or a hot tub. There were a few stone benches set up around the walkway, and there were a few people sitting on them and talking. That however, was not what had caught my attention the most. In the middle of the pond there was a statue of what looked to me like a wine glass. The statue was about 10or 15 feet high! The water in the statue was overflowing like a fountain, but I could also see a ladder that lead up into the glass itself. The part that surprised me the most was that there were actually people sitting in the wine glass, and there was no one telling them not to. I wondered exactly what kind of place this was.

Phoebe must have seen my expression, because she laughed and said "It's kind of like a malty-level hot tub. The water is kept warm by solar panels, and students are free to go for a swim any time they want. Just think of it as an outdoor swimming pool. We also have an indoor one for doing laps. It's in the same building as the fitness center." Fitness center?

Right about then, my curiosity got the best of me. I rifled through the papers that I was holding and quickly found the map of the campus. The first thing I noticed was that what I could see from where I stood was only a part of the campus—the recreational part to be exact. Each of the buildings around the valley were labeled. There was the fitness center, a music studio, an auditorium, a few temples (for god and goddess worshiping), an art studio, a "drama storage shed" and the building that we'd just come out of (which was labeled "sick bay". There was also a track that ran around the outside of the circle which I assumed was for running.

At first, I didn't understand why there would be a sick bay in the recreational area, but right on cue, my question was answered for me. A girl walked up holding her wrist and wincing in pain. She spread her fingers out on one hand and placed it over her heart, but she winced again and quickly went back to holding her wrist in pain. "Phoebe," she said in greeting.

"Hello Thanatos," Phoebe said. "Are you OK?" There was something in Phoebe's expression, but I couldn't tell what it was. It almost looked like she was trying too hard to be nice.

"I'll be fine…" she said and then winced again. "I just fell when I was doing my nightly jog…" Thanatos had almost the same forced look on her face. Even a blind person could tell that the air between the two was tense.

"Well, Hestia should still be there. One of our newest found descendants has just woken up. I bet you two will get to know each other. You both will end up in the infirmary so much…" She(")—she gestured to me with a manicured hand—"seems to be quite clumsy as well." Phoebe smiled warmly at me. For a moment, all the forced kindness in her face was gone.

I laughed. "You have absolutely no idea." I said. I wasn't exactly clumsy, but I definitely had my moments. I've done things that are so stupid they can hardly be called clumsy. For example, I went skiing once, and I decided to go up the big hill. When I went up the chair lift, everything was good until I got to the top. The only thing I forgot to do was get off… Long story short, I jumped off just as the chair started to turn and go back down, and I landed on my dad's shoulder… I have no idea how I got that high, but that's just what happens to me. Like I said, I'm not clumsy, I just do stupid things.

We went around the back of the building and crossed the walking path. There were three other paths that branched off of it. When I glanced at my map, I saw that the one in the middle was the main driveway, the one on the right lead to the dorms, and the one on the left lead to the school buildings. Both of the paths looped around the center circle, meeting half way around. Between each recreational building was a path that lead to the outer ring. The campus was quite organized, and it looked really cool on the map.

Phoebe took the path on the right like I thought she would. We walked for about five minutes before we reached the building that I'd be staying in labeled "118". She opened the door with a key that she handed to me. It was attached to a string to hang around my neck, and it also had another key on the ring.

"What's the other key for? I asked curiously.

"In the building where the class for your main gift will be held, you'll get a locker. You have that class two times a day, first and last period. The key is for the locker, and the lock for it is on your dresser." Phoebe explained. I nodded in understanding.

I looked around the building that we'd just entered. To the left and right of the door were coat hooks, and on top of them were shelves. The setup reminded me of being in primary school, where everyone got a cubby and a hook.

A bit farther forward, the narrow hallway opened into a kitchen. A long rectangular island was in the center, and there were four stools set at it. On the left and right sides, there were cupboards, shelves and various kitchen appliances. Past the kitchen was a cozy-looking living room.

I went around the left side of the island to get a better look at the rest of the space, when I noticed two doors on either wall. They were labeled "1", "2", "3" and "4".

Phoebe came up behind me. "Your room is number three." She said. I nodded and walked to the respective door.

The room was relatively large. The flooring was hardwood, the walls were a light turquoise color, and there was a bed spread to match them. On the wall across from the door, there were two doors with a dresser between them. There was also a seriously huge skylight on the bedroom roof. It was probably about three feet by three feet, and it was exactly in the center of the room.

First, I went to the door on the left, finding that it opened to a bathroom with a tub, a shower and two sinks. There was another door in the bathroom which I assumed lead to the room of bedroom four. I didn't really mind sharing a bathroom with someone.

The door on the right opened to a closet that was nearly the size of the bathroom. The thing that interested me was the makeup table. There was a rack on it that was stocked with four necklaces, four rings, four bracelets, four hair clips, four pins and four pairs of earrings. The strange part was that one of each was silver, one of each was turquoise, one of each was brown and one of each was white.

Phoebe's footsteps entered the closet behind me as I was studying the jewelry. "Right…" she said. "You can only wear those for jewelry here. They represent each of your gifts. As of right now, each of those pieces belongs to you."

"Thanks." I said. Then I studied the silver ones more closely. "Those aren't diamonds, are they?" I asked suspiciously.

"Of course they are. What else would they be?" Phoebe answered as though it were obvious. I was suddenly scared to wear any of it. Diamonds weren't cheep, and I assumed that nothing else that was there would be cheep either. Phoebe seemed to read my mind in a way. "You have to wear at least one piece a day. It would be awkward if people were staring at your eyes to find out what gifts you had, wouldn't it? Anyways, since you have earrings in right now, I know that you don't mind wearing jewelry in general." She said.

"…But diamonds are expensive!" I protested. "What if I lose them?"

"You can get new ones. You get two replacements before you have to start paying for them." Phoebe quickly reassured me.

I was afraid to ask, but I did anyways. "So, what are the other stones?"

"Oh! The turquoise ones are… well… turquoise, the white ones are opals, and I forget what the brown ones are called…" Phoebe was lost in thought for a moment, but she quickly snapped out of it. "Anyways, each stone stands for something. For example, diamonds are for good luck and turquoise is for happiness. When the use of the stone runs out, you just have to ask your ancestor to re-fill it. You'll get a sheet on the specifics of each one…" She said and produced yet another four pieces of paper from her pocket.

The next thing I noticed was a rack of clothes. There were four dresses, four skirts, four tops, four sweaters, four scarves and four schoolbags, again one of each silver, turquoise, brown and white. I noticed that they were actually quite stylish.

"Those are the standard uniforms. You can wear casual clothes on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but you have to wear the uniform each of the other days for school." Phoebe explained. It sounded fine to me.

On the dresser, there was a lock, just like Phoebe said there would be. The only thing I wasn't expecting was how complicated it would be. There was a key hole, but there was also a miniature key pad to type in a four-number code. A small piece of paper was stuck to the back of the lock. The piece of paper said "1818". I assumed that was the number for the lock it was attached to. I quickly ripped it off and threw it in the garbage can that was beside the dresser.

Just then, I heard noises coming from outside the bedroom. I quickly dropped the pieces of paper that I'd been given and went to investigate.

There were three girls at the door just hanging up their coats. As soon as they saw Phoebe and me, they froze, looking wary. The funny part about it was that all three were synchronized in their actions and expressions. I tried not to laugh, but it bubbled over without my permission.

"What?" they all asked at the same time. Then they cracked up too. Quite the first impression, eh?

When we all stopped laughing, the tallest one of the group asked "So, who are you exactly?"

I was about to tell them my name, but Phoebe answered the question before I could say anything. "This is your new roommate girls! She just got out of the infirmary." She turned to me with an odd expression on her face. "I almost forgot. Your name doesn't matter anymore. You'll be named after your god or goddess ancestor." I was shocked, but I nodded in understanding.

"What are her gifts?" another girl asked.

"Shouldn't you know?" the tall girl cut in rudely.

"Well sorry for being nice!" the other girl shot back haughtily.

I looked at Phoebe helplessly. I never was good at stopping fights, and it looked like the one that had just started was getting pretty heated…

"Now ladies," Phoebe warned. "No fighting…" she trailed off as if she was implying that something would happen to them if they didn't do as she said. Her tone made shivers run up and down my spine. The girls by the door stopped fighting immediately. I guess they felt the same way.

After a long silence, the girl who hadn't yet spoken stepped forward. "Is it too late to say "Nice to meet you,"?" she asked. her smile looked a bit awkward and fixed on, but the tone of her voice implied that there were good intentions behind her words.

I had to laugh. "No," I replied. "I'd tell you my name, but I don't really think it matters. Can I tell you tomorrow?" I asked jokingly.

"Sure." The girl said. She looked much more comfortable now. "I'm Tarah, after the Roman Goddess of Earth." She explained.

"I'm Venus, after the Roman Goddess of LOVE! " The tallest of the three shimmied her small hips, making "love" sound extremely dirty.

"I'm Athena, after the Greek Goddess of Wisdom." The other girl said proudly.

I was kind of scared of Venus. Come to think of it, they were all a bit different. I reminded myself that different was a good thing. I didn't want to be popular anymore, and that meant that I'd get to hang out with people who didn't necessarily care about their looks every moment of every day. Life would definitely be different from now on.

Next, Phoebe spoke up. "You're all rooming together for one reason. Each of you share one gift with someone else in this room. For example," she said glancing at me, "You and Athena can both control air. Tarah and Venus can both teleport and so on." She looked at me again. "The other three girls arrived yesterday. Of course you did too, but you were out for a while."

"I was out for a day?" I asked incredulously.

Phoebe nodded. "I probably should have told you that earlier…" she trailed off, looking guilty.

"It's fine. I was just shocked…" I replied. Another awkward silence followed.

"Well, I should probably let you ladies get to bed. It's getting pretty late." Phoebe finally broke through the awkwardness. "Oh," she looked back at me. "You have to stay awake for another half hour. You're not supposed to sleep for two hours after you've passed out." I glanced down at my watch, only to see that it read 10:00. The clock on the wall read the same time.

I sighed as I went into my room. I still had to unpack. Tomorrow would be Monday, which meant I really didn't have a lot of time to do it. Right now though, I was too tired. I just grabbed my pajamas and toothbrush and walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. When I opened the door, I was surprised to find Tarah already in there.

We both brushed our teeth and re-dressed in silence. It wasn't awkward at all though. It just seemed like there was nothing that had to be said at the moment.

When I got back into my room, I decided to take a look at my schedule. There wasn't much else to do, and I really didn't feel like unpacking this late at night.

Schedule

Main gift:

Your class buildings are labeled on the map under the same name as the subject. Your main gift training is located in the building that has the same name of your gift. For example, if your main gift is air, your training will be in the building labeled "air". In your class for your main gift, you will also be learning mythology and descendant sociology.

Your schedule is as follows:

Breakfast 6:45

1 Main Gift training 7:30

2 air training 9:00

3 healing 101 9:45

4 shape shifting 101 10:30

5 visions 101 11:15

Lunch 12:00

6 mathematics 12:30

7 English 1:15

8 French 2:00

9 Main gift training 2:45-4:15

Dinner 6:30-7:30

I smiled as I read my schedule. Some of the classes sounded like fun. I wondered exactly what you did in visions 101. I mean honestly, how hard was it to figure out how visions worked? Then again, I didn't know how they worked yet…

I checked my watch. It was about twenty-five after ten. I figured I would take more than five minutes to fall asleep, and I was right. I lay there for about fifteen minutes. My mind just wouldn't shut down. I was too excited for the first day of school tomorrow. I was too excited to find out who my Goddess would be. I was too excited for too many reasons. Finally, I decided to try a yoga technique. I closed my eyes and lay on my back. Then, I took a deep breath through my nose that expanded my lungs to their fullest. I held it for a second before letting it out slowly through my nose again. I did that for about a minute, and my nerves calmed down completely. I did it for another thirty seconds or so, and I promptly fell asleep.

I was in a grey void. All I could se around me was mist, no matter where I looked. I held my hand out in front of my face, but I couldn't see it until it was about an inch away. I'd never had a dream like this before.

After a little while longer, the grey mist started to seriously disorient me. I kept wandering around looking for a way out. Finally, I saw a white speck in the distance. I started moving towards it, and thirty seconds later, I got close enough to see what it was.

At first glance, it seemed to be just a white hole, nothing more and nothing less. I squinted, trying to make sure there was nothing else there. Slowly, a shape appeared out of the bright light. At first it was just a faint outline, but slowly, the form of a person became clearer and clearer.

As soon as she was mostly opaque, she spoke. Her words were as soft as a breeze, yet they held more power than a hurricane. "I am Asteria, Goddess of the Oracle of the night. I will be your mentor throughout your new life."

I couldn't think of anything to say to that. Just being in the presence of a goddess made me speechless. To be honest, none of what had happened over the past few days settled in until now. Now, the concept of being a great granddaughter of a goddess seemed so much more exciting than I could even hope. I asked the first thing that came to my mind. "Where am I?"

Asteria laughed. "You're in the in between. You can't come through the white light until you've died. Whenever we talk at nights, you'll have to come here."

I had so many questions that I had to ask, but suddenly I felt like I was immersed in water. I couldn't see my goddess clearly anymore, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. When she spoke again though, I could hear her words as plane as day. "People will have different reactions to you, but don't pay attention to them." Her voice was fading now, and so was the grey void. I heard her say one last thing before the dream shattered. "Don't judge a book by its front cover… or by its first chapter for that matter…"

The next thing I knew, I was in the corner of a darkened room. There were candles set out in a large circle on the floor. A person lay sprawled out in the middle of the circle on their back. The person looked to be unconscious.

Suddenly, the door burst open on the other side of the room, and a shortish figure burst through. The figure was shrouded in black, but I could tell by the voice that came out of it that it was a female. The figure reached into the circle with a gloved hand, sprinkling a light dusting of powder over the unconscious person. "I offer a sacrifice to my goddess. I ask in return for her life force to be mine."

Slowly, the body seemed to melt away into nothingness. The only thing that was left was a specter. The figure reached out with both hands, and the specter moved towards her. As the two figures became one, I heard a faint "Goodbye Dike, after the Goddess of Justice." The words sounded ironic. It seemed as though the ritual that had just been performed was evil, and yet the goddess of justice was the one who was being sacrificed. That didn't seem just to me at all.

Another figure stepped out of the shadows of the room, but the room suddenly faded, leaving in its place the grey void again.

"She must be stopped. She has learned the secret of power, and she does not plan to use it for good. You are the only one who will foresee the rituals to permanently end someone's life. You must stop her before she takes your soul. Once a sole is gone, it cannot be reincarnated." The voice was soft, mysterious and hauntingly familiar. The only thing was I couldn't remember where I'd heard it before. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe. I was being suffocated from all sides.

The next thing I knew, I was lying on my back, safe and sound in my bed.

~ #$%^&*()_+

A/N: I really don't know if any of my measurements would be correct or accurate, but let's just go with it! After all, it is fiction.

Also, grade primary is like a grade before grade one… I think it may be obvious. I know it's called different things in different places, so if it (or anything else) isn't clear, just PM me or leave it in a review.

I would have described what the people looked like, but I really don't know. They're supposed to look kind of like their goddess, but I don't exactly know what their goddesses look like… Like I said, I don't exactly have internet right now…

For those who aren't familiar with mythology (like me), here's a list of the goddesses so far:

Asteria: Goddess of the Oracle of the Night

Phoebe: goddess of light

Thanatos: goddess of death

Hestia: goddess of the home/hearth

Venus: roman equivalent of Aphrodite, goddess of love/beauty/sexuality

Athena: goddess of wisdom

Terra: roman equivalent of Gaia, goddess of Earth

Dike: goddess of Justice

That should be about it. If you have any suggestions for goddesses to use (or corrections on ones that I've already used), just let me know in a PM or a review.

Tarah xXx


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Wow! Twelve pages in three days! You're welcome.

Huge thanks to my beta amai-chan1993! Totally awesome!

Chapter 4: First Day

The next day dawned bright and chilly. The noise that had awakened me was the sound of the shower in my shared bathroom running. I opened my eyes only to see a dark blue morning sky above me. For a moment, I was confused and disoriented, but it slowly came back to me. First, I remembered the dreams I had. They were pretty hard to forget, even when I was half asleep. The dreams lead me to remember where I was.

As soon as the memories crossed my mind, I was completely awake. I ran to the closet and grabbed an outfit to wear. The outfit consisted of the brown dress with the white sweater, the turquoise school bag and all the diamond jewelry that I now owned. I set it on my bed and got ready for the shower, but then I realized that Tarah was still in it. I passed the time by starting to unpack my stuff.

I knew that I was running purely off of adrenalin, and I shuddered to think about what I would be like when it wore off. At the moment though, I didn't care. I unpacked as quickly as possible. I somehow managed to finish just as I heard the shower turning off. I grabbed a towel off the top shelf of my closet and headed into the bathroom.

I got ready in record time. It was about six-thirty when I came out of my room fully dressed and ready to go. There was fifteen minutes until breakfast, so I checked the map to see where we'd be eating.

Before I could get a chance to find out though, Tarah walked out of her bedroom as well. She was wearing the jewelry with green stones, most likely emeralds, a brown skirt, a pink top, and she was carrying a yellow school bag. The bag looked a bit strange with her outfit, but she didn't seem to notice or care. As soon as she saw me, she smiled. "Looking for the dining hall?" she asked kindly.

I nodded and asked, "Do you know where it is? I can't really find it on here." I pointed to the map that was spread out before me on the island. Even though I'd only been looking at it for a few seconds, I really wasn't good with following maps. I probably wouldn't find it no matter how long I looked.

She laughed and then apologized. "Sorry, it's just that I had the exact same thing happen to me on the first day. Phoebe came at seven to see where we were, and she found us all with our faces pressed against our maps…" she trailed off and laughed again. She came over to my map and studied it for a second. "The reason that nobody could find it was because it's on this path." She pointed to the long driveway. I could see a building labeled "dining hall", but there was another one labeled "offices"

"What's that for?" I asked, pointing to the second building.

"Oh. Those are the offices for all the teachers. They offer extra help for those who need it, and I guess that's where they do it. At least that's what Athena says. I know it's only been a day, but I'm already starting to doubt that she actually knows how to use her gift like she says she does." Tarah lowered her voice on the last sentence. It almost sounded like she was dishing out gossip or something.

"Talking about me again?" a voice came from behind me, startling us both. I turned around to see that Athena and Venus were standing in their doorways. Venus was the one who had spoken. Her clothes somehow looked extremely tight and revealing, even though nobody else's did. My first instinct was to ask her where she got them, but then I scolded myself. I would not draw attention to myself here. Judging from what Asteria had said to me last night, I assumed I'd get enough attention without trying.

Tarah and I ignored Venus's words. We went to the door and grabbed our jackets. Without a word, we made our way to the dining hall.

As soon as we entered, I learned that "dining hall" was a very loose term. It was more like a buffet restaurant. There was a large square table with the center cut out in the middle of the room. Food covered every square inch of the table. There was everything from fruit trays to pancakes to bacon and eggs to cereal. I loved this place already!

There were booths and tables scattered throughout the room. We chose one that was relatively close to the buffet and went to grab our food. I got a few slices of French toast, a few strips of bacon and some fresh strawberries. While I was getting my food, I noticed that there were some people who wore four different colors, but there were also people whose outfit only consisted of one or two colors. I suppose it really depended on the colors they had. Some colors just didn't look good together.

I also noticed a lot of people staring at me, probably because I was new. Some of them looked away when I caught their glances, but some stared right back at me.

While I was eating my breakfast, Phoebe came over to our table. "So, how was your sleep?" she asked politely.

I swallowed the food that was in my mouth. "Good." I replied.

"Did you find out who your goddess is yet?" she asked. I could tell that was the main reason she'd come over. I nodded as I took another bite of French toast.

"Who is it?" Phoebe looked like a kid on Christmas morning waiting to open her gifts.

I swallowed again and answered. "Asteria."

The effect was immediate. Everyone at our table stopped what they were doing to stare. "Asteria?" Phoebe asked louder than necessary. That made the surrounding tables stop and stare too. Whispers of "Asteria" filled the now completely silent room. Everyone was staring at our table, and some people were even standing to get a better look.

"What?" I said defensively. "I'm not lying. You don't think I'm lying, do you?" I was starting to get frantic.

"No no. Of course not, dear." Phoebe quickly reassured. "It's just that, well, the last descendant of Asteria was alive over two hundred and fifty years ago."

I frowned. "So? What about it?" I asked confusedly

"She was the ninth. That makes you the tenth." Phoebe explained.

I still didn't get it. "What's so important about that?" I asked.

"Every tenth descendant of a goddess is their reincarnation." Phoebe explained a bit too patiently. Then, I remembered what she'd told me in the infirmary last night.

"That makes you the first descendant of Asteria." Athena piped up. "Since you're the first, you'll be the most powerful." She explained herself. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but Athena continued. "Asteria is the most rare goddess to be descended from. She was the only one who didn't have any reincarnations yet… but now there's you." She finished brightly.

The dining hall went completely silent. If I thought it was awkward before, it was a hundred times worse now. I was right about attracting attention when I wasn't even trying. I swear I could have heard a pin drop from across the room.

I didn't exactly know what to do, so I just tried to finish my breakfast and get out of there ASAP. Have you ever tried to eat when every single eye in the room is on you? Well, it's harder than you'd think. I was extremely self-conscious with all those people watching me. It felt like if I made one wrong move I'd be dead.

Just when I thought I would explode if I was stared at for one more second, the dining hall doors burst open, and Thanatos sprinted in out of breath. All eyes immediately shifted to her.

When she noticed that everyone was staring at her, she got defensive. "What?" she said.

As one, all eyes traveled back to me and then back to her. She looked over at me and smiled. "Weren't you the girl that Phoebe was showing around last night?" she asked kindly.

I nodded. "That would be me," I said glumly.

"May I ask why everyone's staring at you?" she asked curiously.

Before I could say anything in reply, ten voices from various places in the room piped up. I just put my head in my hands and waited for it to blow over.

After a little while, I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I looked up, Phoebe was looking at me sheepishly. "I didn't exactly mean to start this…" she said guiltily. "Just run out now and I'll get your plate for you."

I took the escape route as soon as it was offered. Without a backwards glance, I jumped from my chair and sprinted for the main doors. A table of girls giggled as I passed them. I thought I heard one of them say, "She probably thinks she's "all that" now. I'll teach her later." If I heard what I thought I heard, I was slightly scared. I had no idea how to use my powers to protect myself.

I ran back to my room and hid there until it was about twenty-five after seven. I hoped nobody would be there to stare at me. With five minutes to spare, I sprinted as fast as I could to the building labeled "visions".

The room was like a large classroom. The only difference was that there were yoga mats spread out over the floor in stead of desks. As soon as I got in the door, a petite, young-looking woman came over. "You must be new. I'm Nyx after the Goddess of Night. My main gift is also visions, and I'll be your main teacher throughout your stay here." She said. Her voice was comforting and soft. "If you're in your first year you go on the left side, and if you're in your last year you go over to the right. Other than that, you can take a seat anywhere. We'll begin in about five minutes. While you're waiting, you're welcome to do yoga if you know how. It helps to channel your focus and bring on the visions. That's actually what we'll be working on today."

I nodded and took a mat near the back. Thankfully, there weren't many people here yet, and I was able to do a bit of yoga without people staring at me. I couldn't say I was exactly skilled at yoga. I'd been doing it for about a year now, and I kind of knew what I was doing. I noticed that the other people who were here already were also doing yoga. I quickly closed my eyes though, because the person ahead of me was doing a downward-facing dog with a skirt on… Let's just say I saw things that I could have gone my whole life without seeing and leave it there.

Five minutes later, Nyx began a yoga session for those who didn't know what they were doing. I noticed that she didn't keep people in downward-facing dog for vary long. I'd already seen enough to not wonder why, but apparently another new girl didn't have the same experience that I'd had.

"Um, I used to do yoga before I came here… Why don't we stay in down-dog for very long?" She asked timidly.

Nyx smiled awkwardly. "Well, all the girls in this room are wearing skirts…" she tried to explain. The girl's face burned bright red, and she quickly dipped her head in a nod.

"Well, before we officially begin, why don't we all go around and introduce ourselves." Nyx suggested.

The class was relatively small, and it was mostly made up of girls. I found out that the name of the girl who had asked the question was Dike, after the goddess of justice. I gave a little start when I heard it. Wasn't that the name of the person that was sacrificed in my dream? I'd been wondering if it was real, and now I suspected that it might have actually been true. The only problem was that there was no way of knowing. I didn't get a good look at the person's face in the dream, so I couldn't compare it to any others.

I found out that the girl ahead of me was named Hesperia after the goddess of evening. There was also another girl whose name was Irene after the goddess of peace.

I was dreading the moment that I had to introduce myself, but it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. Nyx just smiled and said, "I saw you coming."

After that, she explained why our main gift was visions. Well, it was obvious for me, but I learned that the gift of visions was a peaceful gift. Apparently, the ancestors of gods and goddesses who specifically had to do with pure things (or times of day) were usually the ones who had visions as their main gift. I found that Nyx was a vary (very) good teacher. Her voice made you want to listen to her for hours on end, and the hands-on way she instructed made everything she taught interesting. She also said that the key to mastering visions was yoga or meditation. You were able to control your gift better if you were centered and balanced.

Then, we started to work on summoning visions. We were instructed to sit cross-legged on our mats with our elbows on our knees and our fingertips on our temples. We did deep breathing for a few minutes. Then, once we were all calm, we were instructed to think about a certain person who we knew quite well, and picture their face in our minds.

I immediately thought of Abi. Suddenly, it felt as though a peace of me had been lifted, but it was still attached to a string. The peace seemed like it was searching for something in the air. After a few seconds, it seemed to find what it was looking for, and it did a nose-dive for it.

Suddenly, I was in a different place at a different time. I saw Abi sitting alone in a corner in the cafeteria at my old school. I saw brief pictures of people picking on her because she'd been kicked out of the cool crowd. Then, I saw a girl who I hadn't seen before walk over to Abi's table and sit down with her. I then saw quick flashes of them swimming together, having sleepovers, basically they were best friends. Then, I felt the peace of me go back up in the air, and the vision shattered.

I lifted my head from my hands and opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was a pair of dark eyes staring at me about four inches from my face. I screamed and jumped back, and so did the other person. After a moment, I realized that it was Nyx. I sat back up and tried to stifle my laughter. I took a few deep breaths and then moved my hands from my mouth. "Sorry…" I whispered.

It seemed like I didn't have to whisper though, because my screech had brought everyone back to focus. Nyx stood up and cleared her throat. "Raise your hand if you saw anything." She said. I looked around the room. Everyone on the other side had raised their hands except one or two people. I reluctantly looked in front of me, sighing in annoyance. Nobody from my year had raised their hands. I took a deep breath and slowly raised mine.

All eyes shifted to me, but I ignored them. I looked right at Nyx and apologized again. "I didn't really mean to disrupt the class. It's just that you were right there and it freaked me out…"

Nyx laughed. "Yes, it freaked me out too. May I ask what you saw?" she was curious.

"Well," I said slowly. "I saw my best friend being picked on, and then someone else came and they became friends…"

My response sounded lame, but Nyx just smiled. "Very good." She praised. "It isn't often that a student sees something on their first try. I'd assume that has to do with your ancestry though." She said the last sentence more to herself than to me.

In the last half hour of the class, we did mythology. We started right at the beginning. I'd never liked mythology much until now. Nyx made it so interesting. The things that she explained seemed so real—I could easily believe that the myths were actually reality.

The next class I had was Air training 101. Luckily it was two buildings down from the "visions" building.

The classroom was longer and skinnier than the others. When I looked at the map later, I realized that all the element buildings were like that. There was a single row of desks along one of the longer walls, and there was a concrete wall opposite the desks.

The air class was almost as interesting as the visions one. First, the teacher (Selene after the goddess of the moon) passed out some crystals. She explained that stones helped channel your energy. Without them, your gift would either not work or be virtually uncontrollable. Apparently, your hands had to be on the crystal at all times. She also said that air wasn't hard to summon, but it wasn't exactly easy to control.

We did some deep breathing to center ourselves first. Then, the teacher placed a small book in front of each of us and instructed us to make it hit the concrete wall.

I learned one other thing in that class. Not only did you learn to control air, you also improved your reflexes. Some people were totally disoriented when they closed their eyes, and their books flew sideways, hitting someone else in the head. In turn, that person would lose focus, get angry and throw the book right back to the person whom it belonged to. The book would often come back to its owner with a rude comment or insult.

I was nervous to try moving my book with Air. I really didn't want anyone to have a grudge against me, but I also didn't want to be "the one who can do everything". I sighed and closed my eyes, placing my hands on the crystal. In my mind's eye, I imagined the book on the desk in front of me. I willed it to lift up and hit the wall, but it didn't seem like my energy reached far enough to get it to hit. I knew that she said not to take my hands off the crystal, but something inside me told me that that was the only way I'd get the book to hit the wall. I sighed and opened my eyes, taking my hands off the crystal. As soon as I did, the book that was hovering about four feet from my desk plunked to the floor.

"Why did you stop? You were doing so well." Selene's voice startled me.

"Oh. I didn't see you there. Well, I felt like my energy couldn't reach any farther. I felt like I was supposed to take my hands off the crystal in order to get it to work. Is that normal?"

"Come with me." Selene instructed, ignoring my question. She led me to a door off the side of the classroom. Inside the door was a smaller version of the training room. There was a single table set up with a crystal and a book on it. "Why don't you try again in here so I'm not distracted by other students. Keep your hands on the crystal for now."

I followed her instructions, willing the book to lift off the desk and move forward. When it was about four feet from the desk again, I felt like I couldn't reach it with my mind. I slowly turned my head to face Selene and opened my eyes one at a time. I'm sure I looked strange, but I was determined not to lose my concentration. "I can't make it go any farther." I said.

Selene was in the process of putting a helmet on. "Try taking your hands off the crystal now." She instructed.

I turned towards the front, but this time I didn't close my eyes. Spreading my fingers out wide, I lifted both my hands off the crystal and pushed forward. The book lurched and slammed into the wall. Instinctively, I pulled my hands back. The book picked itself off the floor and headed straight for my head. I put my hands up in a "stop" gesture, and the book slammed into them with full force. I managed to stop my hands from hitting my face just in time.

"Good, but you need practice. You used too much effort to move the book. You just have to work on not using as much force. You can go back into the main room and keep practicing." She said. "The crystals are just for beginners. They keep us grounded when the air tries to take control. We often try too hard to use the element when we really don't have to." She explained matter-of-factly.

In the last twenty minutes of the lesson, I managed to not make the book hit my face as hard, and I managed to stop it from making as much noise when it hit the wall. I noticed that I was making progress, and so did Selene.

I also managed to throw my hand up and block another book as it was flying at my head. Athena was surprised when it came back to her so quickly without any rude comments attached.

Even though the air training class was fun, it was a relief to be out of there. At least healing didn't include accidentally injuring other people.

Healing 101 was taught by Hestia, the nurse from the sick bay. Her calm air that traveled around the room with her immediately put everyone at ease. She didn't give us stones, which I was glad for. It felt like the stones were stopping me from channeling my energy instead of helping.

She brought in three people who were injured in different ways, and we took turns trying to heal them. I was supposed to go last, being the lucky person I was. When it was finally my turn, I found out that I had the person who had broken her ankle. Since I was last, the ankle was almost healed. The girl looked stressed out from all the people. "Please try to do a good job," Hestia whispered to me. "She's extremely stressed out, and at the rate she's healing, everyone will have to go again." Hestia sounded distressed for the girl, and I couldn't blame her. When I get stressed out, I'm really not the most fun person to be around.

"Ok, so put your hands around her ankle," Hestia instructed. When I did, it was like I could see the bone under my hands. She was going to instruct me farther, but it felt like I already knew what I was doing. I let some energy flow through my hands and into her ankle, but something didn't feel right.

I took my hands away and looked up at Hestia, interrupting her instructions with my glance. "I don't think the bone is set right." I said, frowning slightly.

"It should be…" Hestia muttered to herself. She placed her hands around the ankle just like she'd instructed me to do a few seconds earlier. After a few more seconds, she took her hands away again. "You're right. The only people who should be able to tell are people who are extremely trained or if it's someone's main gift." Then she looked at me a bit closer. "You're the first reincarnation of Asteria, aren't you?" she asked.

I blushed and nodded. How had everyone who wasn't in the dining hall found out?

"That would explain it." She said. "If you're a reincarnation of a goddess, all your gifts are as strong as your main one." She turned back to the girl with the broken ankle. "I'm going to have to re-break this." She said. The girl gave a cry of distress, but she nodded resignedly and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the pain.

Once she re-broke the ankle, she instructed me to try again. I put my hands around her ankle and let some energy flow out of me. I was confident that I was doing it right, but suddenly it was like I couldn't hold the energy back. It all came out in one big rush…

For the second time in the past few days, , my world went black.

~! #$%^&*()_+

When I woke up again, I was lying on something hard. I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the whole class standing in a circle around me. I was lying on the floor of the healing classroom.

The first thing I heard was a sharp voice calling, "Okay everyone, class is over. Back off a bit." I smiled.

I slowly sat up and rubbed my eyes. When I looked up again, Hestia was standing over me and looking concerned. "I think you need to hold back on the healing a bit." She said. "You gave too much of your energy and you weren't able to stay conscious."

"Oops…" I replied. What she said had made sense. I felt like falling asleep I was so tired. I had no idea how I was going to make it through the day feeling like this. "I feel like I'm about to fall asleep." I said groggily.

"Try drawing energy from the air." Hestia suggested.

I sighed and closed my eyes, lying back down on the floor. I took slow, deep breaths in through my nose and let them out through my mouth. Then, I imagined that each inhale pulled energy from the air and each exhale gave the energy time to settle. I became vary conscious of the air around me, and I drew it in through my pores with each breath.

"You can probably stop now." Hestia broke through my concentration a few minutes later. I re-opened my eyes, only to notice that I felt amazing! When I looked down at myself, I was surprised that I wasn't floating. I felt so weightless and stress-free.

"Did it work?" Hestia asked curiously.

I nodded. "Yes, yes it did." I replied happily. "Thank you!"

"No problem." She replied. "You have to go to shifting class now. It's just a few doors down."

As soon as she finished speaking, I heard another class outside the doors of the healing building, no doubt waiting to come in. I jumped to my feet and kind of jogged for the door, grabbing my bag as I passed it. "Thanks again!" I threw over my shoulder as I sprinted for the building labeled "shifting". I was probably going to be late.

I entered the class just as the teacher was starting to explain what we were going to do. She looked over at me when I entered. "Why are you late?" she asked in the way that only teachers could.

"There was an incident in healing." I tried to explain as I looked for an empty seat. Luckily, there was one in the row that was second from the back.

When I looked back at the teacher, there was a distrustful look on her face. "What happened?" she asked slowly.

"Well," I tried to explain, "I used too much energy to heal someone, so I passed out and I had to get energy from the air…" I didn't really think my explanation was going over very well.

"I'll talk to Hestia later. If she doesn't tell me the same story…" she trailed off, implying that she would do something if our stories didn't match. Then, she turned back to the rest of the class. "As I was saying, my name is Surse after the Goddess of Magic, and I'll be your shifting teacher." She threw another quick glance at me and continued. "Today, I want you to try the easiest kind of shifting. I want you all to try to make yourselves look like me. Once you get the hang of it, you'll start learning to shift into animals. Whatever you do, DO NOT shift into objects that are not alive. They don't have a heartbeat, and if you shift into one, neither will you." A shiver passed through the class. The way she'd phrased it… ugh.

Surse smiled at us. "Anyways, as long as you don't think of anything inanimate while you're shifting, it's all good." Another shiver passed through the class. Shifting was starting to sound dangerous. Surse noticed that she was scaring us a little. "Just… don't be freaked out. I don't really do a good job at giving warnings without creeping people out." She was starting to get frustrated with us. This was going to be an interesting class.

Some of the people in the class looked interesting to say the least. They had some of Surse's features, but you could tell who was who. Some people were too scared to even try, and others were trying really hard and not getting anywhere. I was one of the people who had some of her features. Frankly, I was scared that I would never look like myself again.

At the end of the class, Surse passed out mirrors. I didn't understand why she hadn't done that in the first place, but she quickly explained. "Shifting is like making illusions in a way. You can see through it if you look in a mirror. Look at your reflection, picture it in your mind, and then try to shift your features back to your own. It will be easier to do it because your reflection is probably more familiar to you."

Visions class went by in a blur. We basically did a step-by-step version of what I'd done at seven thirty in the morning. I was glad when it was finally lunch. Even though all my morning classes were interesting, they dragged by extremely slow.

Lunch wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. Don't get me wrong, the food was amazing! It was just that people kept staring at me. I really wished they'd stop, but I wasn't rude enough to tell them that.

The one good thing about that lunch hour was that Thanatos came over to my table to say hi. At first I thought she wanted some of my "fame", but she explained that once everyone had found out who her goddess was, they were scared of her for months. For that reason, she claimed to know how I felt. I was just glad for the extra company.

English was my first class after lunch. Let me tell you right now, I do not do well in English. I don't understand it. I just don't have the patience to sit there doing countless grammar worksheets or discussing the hidden meanings behind short stories and poems. I somehow managed to get good marks in English class, but an opinion is an opinion.

Math class on the other hand is one of my favorite classes. People say it's hard and complicated, but to me it's challenging and interesting. I suppose my interest also comes from the fact that I'm good at it. When I was younger, I could finish a math worksheet before anyone else in the class could, and most of my answers would be right. Nobody understood my interest in math, but it really didn't matter whether they understood or not.

When I got to French class, I became the happiest person in that hot, stuffy room. I found out that the class was pretty much for beginners. In the elementary school that I used to attend, we'd been doing French since grade primary. In the school that I'd been going to just before I'd been found to be a descendant, the French curriculum required you to have taken French for at least three years.

The teacher was writing notes on the board that she asked everyone to copy down.

Chien = dog

Chat = cat

Ours = bear

Everyone else in the class was taking notes as though their lives depended on it. Apparently, there would be a quiz on Friday, and everyone had to memorize the vocabulary for it. I'd learned that vocabulary in grade primary, and I could probably have done the quiz in my sleep.

As soon as the teacher finished writing the vocabulary on the board, she turned around to watch the class. Her eyes immediately found me, sitting at my desk without a pencil or notebook. "Not writing down the vocabulary? I suppose that means you already know it. Why don't you write the quiz now." She asked. Everyone looked up from their notes to stare at me. I heard a few "ooooo" noises coming from the boys in the class, but everyone ignored them.

The teacher didn't wait for my answer. She gave me the piece of paper and covered the white board with the vocabulary for the quiz on it.

One minute later, I raised my hand. The teacher came over quietly. "Having trouble?" she asked.

"Actually, J'ai finis." I replied. She looked surprised.

"You don't have a photographic memory," she said.

I had to be careful with what I said here. When something is obvious to me but not to someone else, I tend to have a bit of an attitude. "No I don't." was my curt reply.

"I'm guessing you've done French before?" she asked.

I nodded, biting my tongue to stop the words "no shiz" from coming out.

She nodded back and went to her desk. A moment later, she came back with a worksheet. "This is for the students who are in their last year of French. Hopefully it's more of a challenge." She said curtly.

Five minutes later, I walked up to her desk, handing her the worksheet on the "future proche" tense that she'd given me. I'd done that in grades six and seven, but I didn't tell her that. In fact, if the worksheet was for the last year of French, I could easily teach French at a GSLC for a living.

She was about to give me another worksheet when the bell rang, signaling us to go to our final main gift training class of the day.

The class was spent firstly by doing a bit of yoga, and then Nyx taught us some more sociology and mythology.

I was dreading dinner that night, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. In another way though, it was worse than I could ever imagine. The main reason for that happened about ten minutes after I'd arrived.

Everyone was sitting there, eating their dinner like it was any other night. Some people were still staring at me, but Athena and Tarah were happily discussing and comparing their first day of school at the GSLC. Suddenly, the dining hall doors burst open, revealing a screaming girl. I vaguely recognized her as Irene from my visions class. She looked like she'd run a long way, but the look on her face was one that I would never forget. In her eyes was an expression of total fear. "someone help! It's Dike! I think she's dead!"

As soon as I heard the name, my body completely froze up. Dike, as in the person who I'd seen being sacrificed in the vision from the night before? Could I have stopped this from happening?

My mind went back to the person who had talked to me in the grey void afterwards. She had said that I would be the only one to foresee the deaths.

The answer suddenly became clear in my mind. I could have saved her. But I'd been too stupid to realize it. Now it was too late.

There was only one thing that ran through my mind. I was the only one who could foresee the deaths of these innocent people. I had to do everything in my power to save anyone I could.

Little did I know that my attempts to save them would result in the death of the only person who was balancing the good and evil on Earth.

A/N: Mwa Ha Ha Ha Ha! Try to stop reading now! It'll eat away at you until you'll be obsessed with finishing the book! LOL

Tarah xXx


	6. Chapter 5

A/N: hya peeps! I finished my exams… well… I finished them over a week ago… but I didn't have any ideas of what to write, and then I had too many ideas of what to write, so I decided that before I started this chapter I would make an outline of what will happen next. Hopefully this is long enough…

NOTE: I'VE UPDATED CHAPTER FOUR. IT ISN'T ANYTHING SERIOUS, BUT IF SOME THINGS DON'T MATCH UP, I MAY HAVE ALREADY FIXED IT.

I'm putting something up on my profile that people should know about. Every month or so (depends on the response) I'll post a new random question. I'm not stalking anyone, I'm just curious to see what the majority of people say about different things. Please be honest.

There's just one thing that I'd like to explain before I start writing this. I know absolutely nothing (I'm not even kidding) about mythology of any sort. The names of the gods and goddesses are going to be used for my own personal pleasure, but I doubt anything in this story will have anything to do with the actual mythology behind them… Sorry for those who are only reading this story because of that. There will probably be times where I'll look up stuff about the gods and goddesses and add them in, but that's not my own knowledge.

Huge huge thanks to Mazarine for reviewing twice! You're totally awesome, even though you threatened me to update… I'm just glad my story is okay enough to be threatened! LOL

I also have to give a huge thanks to jnl94 for reviewing every single one of my chapters! Unfortunately he/she has his/her PM disabled so I can't directly reply to the reviews. I'll just do it here!

Chapter 1: Thank you! I can never notice the spelling mistakes… I only pick up the ones that my spell check finds. Again, thank you! I really didn't notice that, but I think I'll go back and name them… and then I'll have to disclaim them because I'm just that creative… LOL

Chapter 2: What about it was weird? I'll go back and see if I can figure out what you mean. I also understand the second one. I'll have to go do some more editing!

Chapter 3: sorry! I honestly don't know the difference between the two which is kind of sad… Does the one I'm using mean something like only/single? … … It's not a problem at all! I love criticism! What's Norse? I'll just have to ask Wikipedia! LOL Cupid… hmmm… I'll see what I can do!

Chapter 4: heh heh heh heh heh! I just described the classes all in one go because then it would just be out of the way. It sometimes takes me a week to write even a short chapter because my inspiration is like a faulty internet connection… Luckily it was streaming through at a good rate that day. Thanks for the list! I'll have to see where the other characters would fit in… but I'll pick a name from the list when I need a new person! Your reviews inspired me to try to write this faster, so thank you!

For those of you who aren't jnl94, I'm extremely sorry! If you review this chapter I may do this to you as well!

While I'm at it, check out jnl94's stories! She/he just finished a series with five stories in it! While you're at it, there's a story called College of Magic by Kathryn Prescott. It's an amazing story, but it isn't recognized enough. I'm the only one who's been reviewing…

I have a question: Why do people apologize if a chapter is long? It couldn't be bad… If these are too long just let me know please. Actually, I have a poll on my profile asking what length of chapter you prefer. Please vote!

I shall attempt to make this chapter long and eventful as an apology for the huge A/N…

Chapter 5: Warning

The dining hall was in total chaos. Some people rushed for the doors, some people cried with their faces buried in their hands and some people just screamed. Phoebe, who was sitting at a nearby table, gasped and put her hands to her mouth. She took them down after a few seconds and sighed. When she saw me looking at her, she said quietly, "She was a reincarnation. Not a powerful one, but a reincarnation all the same."

The chaos around me became too much and I drifted into my own frazzled thoughts. I knew that Dike had died, but I just couldn't accept it. Something was telling me that I would see her in my visions 101 class first thing tomorrow. I knew that I wouldn't, but my brain wouldn't accept it. This is what happens to me when something shocking occurs. I would never really believe and accept it until months later when it would be old news. I suppose it was better that way, but I really did want to feel something this time.

When I was younger, my great aunt had died from a heart attack. Somewhere deep down I knew that it had happened, but I expected her to be in her favorite chair when I got to her house. When she wasn't, I'd unconsciously come up with the idea that she was just at the store and she'd be back in a few minutes. I cried because I knew the truth, but I still couldn't accept it. Months later when the reality of her death finally came through to me, I had already cried over it so much that I couldn't feel it anymore. It seemed almost like she was never there in the first place.

When I finally came out of my thoughts, I was startled to realize that the dining hall was now deserted. I slowly got up, grabbed my belongings and headed for the double-doors that led to the outside world.

I found that I was extremely exhausted. Even though it was early, I wanted nothing more than to lie down on something soft and just sleep. At the same time, I wanted to wake up and find that this was all just some sick and twisted dream. I wanted to discover that I was in my own bed in Nova Scotia. I wanted to get up and prepare myself for another day of school where my biggest problem was pretending to be someone I wasn't. I didn't want to have the responsibility of saving people from being sacrificed. I would surely crack under all the pressure. How was I supposed to find where the ceremonies were being held? How was I supposed to stop them? I didn't even know how to safely use my powers yet, for crying out loud! Everything was just giving me a headache. It was all too much! I crumpled to the ground and started to cry. At first it was just a few tears that managed to slip past my protective shell. Those tears created a crack in the solid exterior, allowing more to slip through it against my will. Within a minute, I was left sobbing my eyes out with the remnants of the shell that was my calm and confident exterior scattered on the ground around me. If anyone were to find me here like this I'd surely die of embarrassment. Of course, with my luck, someone had already heard my cries of distress and was now coming to investigate.

"Are you OK?"

The question was spoken so softly that I didn't hear it the first time.

"Are you OK?

When the voice finally registered with my mind, I jumped in shock and made a desperate attempt to stop crying. Of course it didn't work, but I wasn't focused on that anymore. I was more focused on the person who had disturbed me. Thankfully, I wasn't as embarrassed as I thought I'd be.

"Are you alright?" the girl asked for the third time. I looked at her a little closer. She seemed familiar somehow…

I felt stupid for not answering before. "I'm O-OK…" I didn't sound OK even to myself, but the girl didn't seem to notice.

"I'm Thanatos… we met last night." She said. I knew I'd recognized her from somewhere.

I nodded. "I remember you." I said. "Sorry… it's been a long day." By then, most of my sobs had died down to hiccups, but my throat still ached in that strange way that only came from crying.

She nodded in understanding. "It's my third year here. Nothing like this happened last year, and my first day was still overwhelming to me. It took a few weeks to even remember where my room was!" she said. "Trust me, I know how you feel. Speaking of which," her expression closed off and became nervous. "Is that why you were crying?" she asked cautiously.

For a moment, I didn't know why she was nervous. The only reason I could think of was because she was like me—she didn't know how to handle tears. "Yes…?" It came out as more of a question than an answer. I wasn't lying. Of course there were more reasons than that, but they were generally all in that topic. I couldn't afford to take weeks to get used to the way things were though.

Thanatos nodded again. "Well, I know my way around here pretty well. I noticed you were in some of my classes. If you need help with anything you can just ask. I could probably answer better than your roommates could… so…" she trailed off looking embarrassed. "Sorry… people tell me I talk too much. I didn't mean to bother you. I saw you crying and…" she stopped herself again and started backing away slowly. "I'll see you around?" she asked finally.

I nodded. "Thanks for the reassurance!" I called after her. I felt better now that I'd talked to someone. Even if I couldn't tell her exactly what was bothering me, it was nice to explain to someone what was going on without them running away from me and in my roommates' case, demand a new sleeping arrangement. It was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

As I made my way back to my room, I thought about a question that had slowly been brought to the front of my mind. Why did I feel like I couldn't tell anyone about my visions? I froze as the answer finally came to me. Whoever was behind the ceremonies had to be going to this school. There was too much security for someone to sneak in, perform a sacrificial ceremony and get out of there without being noticed. I didn't want to run the risk of telling someone who was in league with the hooded figure.

There was something telling me that there was another reason that I froze, but I couldn't think of what it would be. Just as I was going to move again, I heard voices. They weren't loud and they didn't sound threatening. They almost sounded as though the words that were being spoken weren't for certain ears.

"Did you even look for her?" one voice started rising a bit in anger, but it quickly died down to a whisper again.

"I already told you!" the other voice was exasperated. "I was about to go over and… "make friends"," she sneered, emphasizing the two words, "but that other freak came in and ruined it."

"I thought your ancestor was the goddess of the hunt(,) Artemis!" the first voice rose slightly again.

"Well what did you want me to do?" Artemis paused for a moment and then changed the subject. "I heard she did well in her classes today." Now Artemis's voice had taken on a sort of gossipy/sarcastic tone. "Everyone treats her like she's all that. Asteria isn't even one of the main goddesses! A reincarnation of someone like… Zeus would be more powerful, even if he was the hundredth reincarnation!"

"Yes, but he would be powerful in a different way. He would be able to control more, but her control would be better than his, even if it was over things less…" she paused, searching for the right word, "trivial…?" the last word came out as more of a question than the end of a statement. "Anyway, we're getting off track."

Right about here, I realized that the conversation was about me. I couldn't run away though. It was like my legs were frozen to the ground.

"Yes, yes we are." Artemis said in a snobby I'm-better-than-you-and-I-know-it voice. "The two of us should easily be able to overpower her. There's nothing like scaring a first-year. Ah Demeter, this is going to be so much fun." She trailed off and sighed happily. There was seriously something wrong with her mind.

"She hasn't learned to deal with defense yet. Even if she is in control of her powers, there's no way she could even stop one of us." The voice belonging to Demeter said.

Right about then, my legs decided to work overtime. I sprinted away faster than I thought was possible. Of course the pathways were rocky, which meant that they heard me running past them. Their voices yelled after me, threatening to hurt me if I didn't "get back here right now!" The only thing that kept me running was a single doubt. They probably didn't know who I was. It was getting dark, and what was left of the sun was blocked by all the buildings. All they would be able to see of me was my figure sprinting around a corner and out of sight.

As soon as I reached my building, I opened the door and sprinted in, locking it firmly behind me.

Venus and Athena were in the sitting area, but I went past them and straight to my room. I then proceeded to get one of the longest showers in my life. I refused to let myself think about the conversation I'd just overheard. Apparently the threat that had sounded so empty at breakfast this morning wouldn't be as empty as I'd hoped. I had a hard time believing that this was only my first day here—well, my first day here that I was conscious.

By the time I got out of the shower it was about eight thirty. I was surprised when I looked at the clock. I didn't think I was in the shower for almost forty-five minutes! It wasn't late enough to go to bed yet, so I decided to attempt the almost impossible task of straightening my hair. At least it would give me something to do so that I didn't get lost in my thoughts again. It usually takes about forty-five minutes to do, plus I have to blow-dry it which takes another twenty minutes.

I had accurately estimated the amount of time it would take to do my hair. I finished at about twenty to ten. I opened the door to my room, but nobody was in the sitting room anymore. With a sigh, I closed the door and went to bed. The events of the day finally caught up to me. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

I was in the grey void again. I suppose I should have expected it, but it still came as a shock to see the small white light in the distance. I was about to start walking towards it when I saw Asteria purposely striding towards me. She spoke before I could ask any questions.

"Unfortunately your time here tonight is limited." She said smiling sadly. "I have some more advice for you. There is someone that you have let into your circle of friends that will ruin it all. Make sure everyone is trustworthy before you ask them to catch you when you fall."

Couldn't anyone speak without riddles these days? I sighed. "Who is it that I can't trust?" I asked, even though I knew she wouldn't answer.

She surprised me by answering in another riddle, but I suppose it was still something. "In the end, the person who you think you can trust the most will betray you and the person who you have grown distrustful of will be there to pick up the pieces. The only problem is that it will be too late to stop what you had already put in motion. There is a chance that you will be left to fulfill her destiny as well as your own."

Her words scared me. "But, I always thought you lived only long enough to fulfill your own destiny." I said confusedly.

Asteria smiled at me. "That means you will have to first fulfill hers. Somewhere in the mess of things you also have a chance of dying. Keep yourself safe." She said. Her image slowly faded away until I was left alone in the grey void again.

When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I saw was rain. I flinched, thinking it would hit my face. When I rolled over, I realized that the reason that I wasn't wet was because there was a skylight that protected me from the weather.

I rolled out of bed and quickly got ready for the day. I still couldn't believe that I was actually here, that being a descendant of a goddess was really possible.

I couldn't completely focus on getting ready. My head was swirling with the events of last evening and night. Someone had been killed. I was going to be attacked and I had no idea how to defend myself. I had a friend who I shouldn't trust, and she would be my closest friend. My actions would cause somebody's death in one way or another. The worst part was that this was only my second day here that I was conscious.

"Are you okay? You look out of it." Terra's voice shocked me from my dizzying thoughts.

"I'm fine… just a lot to think about." I said vaguely.

Terra looked at me knowingly. "Your goddess spoke to you last night?" even though it was meant to be a question, I had a feeling she already knew the answer.

"Yeah. Do they all speak in riddles?" I asked.

Terra laughed. "I know Terra does." She said. "It really does get annoying, but I suppose you learn to expect it."

Before we walked out the door, I noticed that Venus and Athena were already gone. I shrugged it off groggily.

The skies were just clearing up as we stepped out into the unusually warm September morning. The place smelled of the rain from the night before. Puddles dotted the path, and water dripped from the roofs of the buildings we passed. "Wow. We just missed the rain." I said to Terra.

She nodded. After a moment, she spoke up again. "Hey. Did you know that the students are actually the ones to keep the nature around here alive?"

I looked at her shocked. "When? How?" I blurted. Then I covered my mouth in embarrassment.

"Well, when everything's dried up, the Waters get together and somehow make it rain overnight. When we Earths see a plant that's dyeing for some other reason, we go and fix it. I haven't really learned how to do that yet, but I think Gaia said that's what we were going to do today."

"But wouldn't it rain without the Waters having to do anything?" I asked confused.

"Oh. Yeah, I suppose it would, but there's some sort of weather shield around the school… I don't really know the use of it, but I guess it's so that everything around here can be perfect. There are dry periods which cause forest fires and wet periods that cause floods—I guess it's to prevent that sort of thing from getting in here. I don't really know why people are so worried. Canada's pretty lucky when it comes to storms of any sort. We always get the mild parts." She looked sad at that.

I stopped as we rounded the last corner before the dining hall. Right in front of me there were three people. Venus and Athena were standing on either side of Thanatos.

As soon as they saw Terra and me, they stopped as well. I glanced over at Terra's expression. Her lips were pressed tightly together and all the muscles in her face were stiff as though she was trying not to let her expression show. When I looked at the other three girls, I noticed that Thanatos's expression looked similar to Terra's. After a long, awkward silence, Terra smiled—a forced look—and said, "After you."

The other girls entered the dining hall and Terra and I followed close behind them. I looked at Terra in confusion. She hadn't seemed to be hostile to our other two room mates just yesterday, and I hadn't heard them fighting in any way, so what was happening? Why the sudden change?

She seemed to pick up on the question in my eyes because she mouthed, "later." I nodded in understanding as we loaded our plates high with fruit and French toast.

We walked over to a table. I was curious to see where Thanatos, Athena and Venus would sit. As we started to eat, I watched them grab their own food and make their way to a table across the dining hall. As soon as they sat down, I turned back to Terra. I didn't exactly know how to ask the question that I wanted the answer to, but she seemed to understand what I was trying to ask. "I don't mind Venus and Athena… it's just Thanatos. I don't know what it is… I just get this weird feeling around her. I can't really explain it—heck, it doesn't even make sense to me! She's nice and all, it's just… Maybe it has to do with her past." she explained.

"What about her past?" I was curious now.

"Well…" she seemed a bit hesitant. "I'm not sure how much of this is true… Someone told Venus who told me—she's quite the gossiper, and I've already learned that she has this way of twisting stories so they seem more…" she searched for a word, "shall we say… dramatic."

"So what happened?" I asked.

"From what I've heard, Thanatos used to hang out with them." She jerked her finger towards a group sitting near the door. I recognized them as the ones who threatened me as I ran out of the dining hall the morning before. "That's Demeter and Artemis. They… well… They know how to use their gifts. Let's just put it that way." She said, shivering a little. The names sounded familiar from somewhere… "So did-does Thanatos." She corrected herself. "Anyway," she lowered her voice to just above a whisper, "those three could get away with pretty much anything. They would do something to a student in plain sight of everyone! There would be about thirty witnesses but whatever they did looked like an accident. Everyone who saw what happened wouldn't speak up when a teacher asked for fear that they'd be next. Anyway, rumor has it that one of their "practical jokes" went too far just before March break two years ago. Apparently someone was actually killed! Once everyone came back from wherever they went on the two weeks off, there was only Demeter and Artemis left. Thanatos completely avoided the group. Of course, this could all be just a story, but that's what I heard." As her voice trailed off, I found myself completely understanding the creepy feeling that came from Thanatos. I couldn't help but feel it myself. I knew that she was friendly to me the day before, but then again, I had pretended that Abi was my best friend for two years. It was very possible that she could have been gently coaxing me to be her friend, see things her way and join her in her evil ways. I almost laughed out loud at the dramatic scene that I'd created in my mind. The story probably wasn't even true in the first place. Besides, I shouldn't go around judging people that I didn't even know.

I hadn't noticed before, but as Terra was talking, the cafeteria was slowly clearing out. Glancing down at my watch, I noticed that classes would be starting in a few minutes. I jumped up from the table, grabbing my tray as I went. I dropped it off on the tray rack contraption and ran out the doors to the dining hall. I reached the class just as the echo of the bell was fading into nothingness. Nyx smiled and greeted me as I rushed through the door and grabbed the nearest empty yoga mat.

"Today, we will firstly be talking about gifts in general. Yesterday was just an introduction to learning to use your gifts. I was going to give this speech in a few months, but it seems that some of your powers"—she quickly glanced at me—"will be past the normal rate of growth by then. So, today we will be talking about the consequences of using gifts."

As Nyx spoke, I watched Thanatos out of the corner of my eye. She looked bored, and I couldn't really blame her. Everyone who had visions as their main gift were in the class. Thanatos had been here for three years, so she'd probably heard this speech a few times over.

"Most of the first-years won't have to worry about this for a while, but it's still something that is very, very important. I'll pass out sheets, because I believe that it's easier and quicker than taking notes." She said. She grabbed a stack of papers off her desk and walked around the room distributing them to each student. She spoke clearly and almost harshly as she walked. "Though the gifts that you've been given are great, you absolutely can not overuse them. The papers that I'm handing out explain the consequences for each gift. I don't expect it to be memorized, but I want you to read over the parts that explain the consequences for each of your gifts. I simply cannot express how important this is." She emphasized, speaking each word precisely and slowly as though speaking to a young child. "There are ways to know that you are about to reach your limits. At first, you will feel extremely connected to your gift, but then…" she trailed off. She passed a paper to a first-year in the front row who looked scared to death. I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked the same way. "Your gift isn't like a limited supply of power. You can be at the point of reaching your limits, but as long as you don't use your gift for an amount of time, it will return to you and be as good as new." She explained. I think everyone was reassured a little. "However," she continued, and the sick feeling returned to my stomach, "If you ignore the signs that you're overusing your gift, your body, mind and soul will be left to forever suffer the consequences. You will forever stay in the state that overusing your gift will bring you to."

She passed a paper to me, and I skimmed over it until I found my gifts listed on the page.

Gift: Air

Overusing of this gift will result in: At first, you will feel extremely connected to the air, and will be able to turn yourself into the element at a single conscious thought. You will also be lighter because the air will start to consume your body. If you continue to use it, you will become part of the air. You will be spread all over the world and you will witness things that are not meant to be seen. Eventually, the things that you see will drive you insane, and you will suffer in silence.

You must wait: at least a month before using it again.

Gift: shifting

Overusing of this gift will result in: At first, you will be able to shift very easily with only a conscious thought. You may also experience pain when you shift. Eventually, your gift will find photos of faces in your memory, and you will shift into people and there is nothing you can do about it. It will also be more painful to do so. In the end, you will be constantly changing, and the pain will be unbearable. You will live out your life as long as is normal in extreme pain unless you are killed.

You must wait: at least six weeks before using it again.

Gift: healing

Overusing of this gift will result in: Your gift will be able to sense when people nearby are injured, and it will be easy to heal them at a distance. Eventually, your gift will sense everyone and everything in a one hundred mile radius that is injured, and it will instantly heal them. As a result of this, your energy will be constantly drained. You will not be able to do anything but stay still or else you will pass out. You will live your life in full length unless you are killed.

You must wait: at least four weeks before using it again.

Gift: visions

Overusing of this gift will result in: at first, you will immediately have visions of anybody that you consciously think of. If you continue to use your gift, for the rest of your life you will be stuck in a series of visions of the evolution of the world and the things that are living/will live in it. Your life will be a normal length unless you are killed.

You must wait: two months before using it again.

WARNING: IF YOUR MAIN GIFT IS OVERUSED, YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT SIX MONTHS LONGER THAN WHAT IS WRITTEN ABOVE!

I was completely numb. I was now afraid of using my gifts at all in case I overdid it.

As soon as Nyx saw that we were all done reading our papers, she smiled reassuringly at us. "For those of you who have a pencil, you should write what I'm about to say down on the back of the paper." She paused as the class rummaged through their bags in search of something to write with. Then she continued. "Overusing your gift isn't really common. You'll know when you're close to the point because you'll have been using your gift for over six hours without stopping. Most people can't last for that long unless they train extremely hard. The average amount of time that someone in their last year here can last using their gift is about two hours." As soon as she finished speaking, everyone in their first year including me gave a simultaneous sigh of relief. Nyx chuckled. "There really isn't much to be worried about but this is a warning to those of you who want to train." She shot a pointed look directly at Thanatos who shrugged casually. It was right about then that I realized that the story Terra had told me may have been more fact than I'd hoped it would be.

A/N: the terms "Waters" and "Earths" refer to the people who can control… well… Water or Earth as their main gift.

This is for the people who may not understand the overused gift thing. You can prevent the last stage of it if you try not to use your gift when you notice the first stages of it. If that isn't clear in the chapter, please pleas please let me know, and I'll try to fix it. Things should be self-explanatory. I shouldn't have to explain any of the concepts of anything because it's part of the famous "show don't tell" rule for authors.

If you could be any god or goddess, who would you be? I may use some of your favorites... if I do, I'll let you know.

Thanks for reading! (:

Tarah xXx


	7. Chapter 6

A/N: I'll make this short. Thanks to jnl94 for telling me that I accidentally posted chapter 3 again in stead of chapter 5. I don't even want to think about how confused people would be if I hadn't found out and fixed it.

One more thing. I don't know if anyone's aware, but the reason I'm putting in extra effort to make the chapters longer is because I'm hoping to get this published when I'm done. I first need my mum to proof-read it but my documents are screwed up so I'll have to send her the link. If you go back later and you don't see any of the Author's notes, that would be why.

Chapter 6: Dark past and warning

As I went through my morning classes, I still couldn't get the thought of overusing gifts out of my mind. I know that it is highly unlikely that it would ever happen to me, but it still bothered me for some reason. The way it had been phrased on the paper made it sound so chilling. There were some gifts that I'd prefer to overuse over others, but even the consequences that didn't seem so bad would be highly unpleasant. I had glanced at some of the other consequences for the elements, and I was pretty happy that I got air. If Fire was overused, the person would overheat and be pretty much burned from the inside out. Same with water, a person would freeze inside and eventually they'd be a block of ice. I was glad that I didn't have Earth as one of my gifts, because if you overuse Earth you'd be buried alive. Spirit sounded peaceful though. For the rest of your life, you'd be trapped inside a warm bubble of peace and happiness. It would probably get annoying after a while, but it was definitely better than the other options.

Terra caught up with me and we walked to lunch together. I explained to her the frightening lecture that we'd gotten in Visions 101 earlier that morning. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I showed her the sheet and she became just as creeped out as I was. I was happy that I didn't have many gift classes that afternoon. Nyx had said that we'd get over it in a few days, but I wasn't so sure.

We walked in silence for a few minutes. I think we were both deep in thought. When I saw Thanatos come out of a building ahead of me, I suddenly had an idea. "Hey," I said quietly to Terra, "I'm curious about her now. Nyx seemed to suggest that she trained with her gift a lot, and now I'm wondering how much of the rumor you told me is actually true."

Terra looked a bit scared. "You can't tell her that I said anything! Don't even mention me. Please?" she begged frantically.

I smiled in reassurance. "I won't say a thing. I may end up eating lunch with her if that's okay though." I added as an afterthought. Terra nodded, relieved that she wouldn't be involved. I gave her a quick nod and ran to catch up with Thanatos.

"Hey!" I called when I was close enough for her to hear me. She glanced over her shoulder and, seeing that it was just me, she stopped and waited for me to catch up.

"How was your day so far? Everything better?" she asked concernedly.

I nodded. "Yeah. My roommate Terra went on the tour of the campus for the first-years when I was unconscious, so she helped me get around a bit." Again, it wasn't a lie. She had met up with me so that we could get lunch together, so technically she was showing me how to get to the dining hall from my last class of the morning.

"You know the stuff that Nyx was talking about in Visions this morning? Do you find that creepy?" I asked, changing the subject.

Thanatos shrugged dismissively. "I'm not overly worried about it. I mean, I train more than I should, and right now I can use my gift for about three hours without stopping. It would be pretty hard to double that. Well actually, reincarnations can use their powers for longer, so double that and add two hours." She corrected herself. I was interested at the information she'd shared.

"Have you always trained?" I asked.

"Yeah." She replied. "I know that the fact that I'm a reincarnation makes me more powerful already but I'm doing it because I'm curious how far I can go." She paused for a moment and then added, "As the first reincarnation of Asteria, you could be pretty talented as well, you know. The Oracle of the Night isn't as powerful as some of the others, but you'd be able to do a lot. What you could do would be more subtle because it isn't physical." She explained.

"So is this your third year of hearing the information over again?" I asked, even though I figured I knew the answer.

What Thanatos said surprised me a bit. "Actually, it's something different every year. They take all the sociology and they split it up into five parts. Each year you learn something different. The year after you leave, the teachers do what you learned your first year here."

"Wow. There must be a lot of stuff to learn." I remarked.

"Oh yeah. Sociology includes history and politics as well. The history for the world of the Gods and Goddesses is more precise. We actually kept records of historical events. Also, if there's something important that's been lost, sometimes a God or Goddess will re-inform one of their reincarnations about it."

The subtle shift in subjects hadn't slipped my notice. I was almost afraid to ask Thanatos about her past. It definitely seemed like something that she wasn't comfortable with. As we entered the dining hall and got our food, I tried to think of a way to ask her my questions. We sat down and started to eat, but I still couldn't think of anything to say. Suddenly, before I could stop myself, a fast and nervous stream of words spewed out of my mouth. "I heard rumors that you used to hang out with Demeter and Artemis. Is it true?" I was horrified at myself when I realized how that must have sounded. I should have thought it through more.

Thanatos saw the terrified look on my face but she just grinned. "I don't know what it is that you heard." She said.

"Well…" I was a bit reluctant. "I heard that you used to… um… do bad things… with them… and then one time it got too out of hand and you never hung out with them again…" I sounded ridiculous and I knew it.

Thanatos's expression darkened. "I hoped you wouldn't find out about that." She said. "For the past few months, everyone's judged me for what I'd done in my first year and a half here. I didn't realize that what I was doing was wrong until Hera… well…" she trailed off, a dead look in her eye. She quickly snapped herself out of it and continued. "They were nice to me. Everyone in my room hated me, so I sat at a table on my own the very first day of school. Demeter and Artemis came over to me and we became friends. They were the only ones who would talk to me. After a few months, they developed grudges against some of the other students here. I understood where they were coming from when they described why they didn't like them so I went along with them and we got our revenge together. I knew we were taking things too far in January of last year. They started doing things that had much bigger circumstances to them… I told them it wasn't good, but they didn't listen to me. Then when Hera died, I just ignored them for the rest of the year. They tried to talk to me, but I think they got the hint that we weren't friends anymore pretty quickly. I started hanging out with Venus and Athena then. I chose them because they didn't choose to use their gifts in a physical or harmful way. We've been friends ever since I guess." She finished a bit lamely.

I was silent for a few minutes, digesting the information that I'd just been given. I was a bit sad that the rumor had been true, but the way she explained it made me feel bad for her. She may have done bad things, but she didn't really mean harm to the people whom those things affected. She was just going along with her friends because if she didn't have them, she didn't have anyone.

A voice startled me out of my thoughts. "Asteria?"

I jumped and glanced up at the speaker only to notice that Phoebe was standing by our table and looking at me. "Yeah?" I asked.

"How are things so far?" she asked. "Sorry I didn't get to catch up with you yesterday… You know, with the accident and all," she trailed off.

"Things are pretty good." I replied. "It's a bit different than I expected, but it's just something to get used to I suppose."

Phoebe nodded. "Being the first reincarnation of a goddess can sometimes be a lot of pressure, what with people expecting you to be amazing when you really don't know more than anyone else. If you don't mind, I'd like it if you could meet me in my office after school. I think there's more about reincarnations that you should know." She stated.

"O-Okay." I stuttered, a bit taken aback. I reached for my school bag and grabbed my map. "If it isn't too much trouble, could you point out where your office is?" I asked her.

She smiled at me before studying the map for a moment. She grabbed a pen that was sticking out of her pocket and drew a circle around an area in one of the office buildings. "It's in building 2, room 45. Just let the person working the front desk know that you're there to see me and she'll point you in the right direction." She expounded. I nodded and thanked her as she left to get her own lunch.

My afternoon classes went by in a blur. I was only paying attention with half of my brain. The other half was imagining what kinds of things would make me different from all the other students. It had been said many times that I was more powerful and I was curious about how.

When 4:15 came, I gathered my things and, holding the map in front of my face, I slowly made my way to Phoebe's office.

As soon as I walked through the doors to the building, the lady at the front desk smiled at me in greeting. "Just take the elevator up one floor, turn right and it should be the fifth door on the left dearie."

I followed the simple instructions and found myself in front of a door labeled "245". I raised my fist to knock on the door when I heard voices from inside. I knew that eavesdropping was extremely impolite, but I found myself doing it anyways. Something told me that the conversation was important.

"You can't just kill him like that!" a voice cried. My blood started to run cold.

"Well what else do you want me to do?" I was shocked to hear the voice that belonged to Phoebe reply to the anguished statement. "He's too powerful!" I was now numb.

"Oh. So that automatically means he'll use his powers for… for… you have no proof!" the other voice shrieked in defiance. I wondered what Phoebe assumed he would use his powers for.

"He will be sentenced to death. Enough is enough." Phoebe snapped a tone of finality in her voice.

My palms were sweating and it was taking all my willpower to keep my heavy breathing quiet. I knew that the other person would shortly walk out of the office and notice that I'd overheard their entire conversation, so I raised my hand and knocked on the door. After a short pause, it was opened by Phoebe. She gestured me into the room, pointing to a seat that was placed in front of her desk. I wasn't focused on that though. I was staring at Thanatos. Apparently, now I had an identity to match to the pleading voice.

Before I could say anything, Phoebe ushered her out of the office without a word. She closed the door and came to sit down across from me. By the time she'd taken her seat, I had my breathing under control once again.

"I have some sheets that I can give you about Reincarnations in general." She said, leafing through a stack of papers on her desk. Eventually, she made an "aha!" sound and pulled out a single piece of paper, putting it on the desk between us. "Okay." She read directly off the sheet. "Reincarnations get an extra gift from their god or goddess. The gift is a representation of what the god or goddess represents. The closer a relative the stronger the gift." She glanced up at me and explained in farther detail. "Since Asteria is known to show the future through dreams, your gift would most likely be the ability to visit and control dreams. Of course, we don't know that for sure because there's never been another reincarnation. That also means that your gift will be quite strong." She smiled at me, pausing for a moment in case I had any questions. When she saw that I didn't, she looked down and continued reading. "Reincarnations also do not have one gift that is stronger than the others as per usual. It is also somewhat easier to use them because of their special connection to the deity." Again, she paused for questions. "Their lives are also about fifty years longer than average." She smiled at me. Again. I noted that she smiled a lot.

Suddenly, her expression became cautious and slightly guarded. "Have you learned about… um… the limits to your powers?" she asked hesitantly.

I nodded. "Nyx… went over that with us this morning." I tried to make it sound as though I was neutral with the subject. From the look on her face, I could tell that I'd done a poor job.

"Ok. Well the limit is slightly longer for you… about eight hours."

I knew that she was being nice to me, but I couldn't help feeling like it was just an act. I couldn't shake the feeling that she'd shown her true colors to Thanatos just minutes before. Maybe she'd killed the other girl because she was also powerful. Maybe killing someone meant that you could keep their powers for yourself. I didn't know how I came to that conclusion. It was a pretty far stretch. All I knew was that I shouldn't trust Phoebe. Asteria had told me the night before that one of my friends couldn't be trusted. Phoebe could be considered a friend. Maybe the goddess was talking about her. Deep down, I also had another feeling that my "jump to conclusions" may not be as much of a jump as I suspected.

"Asteria? Hello?" I jumped slightly as Phoebe's hand passed only inches in front of my face.

"Sorry… I zoned out a bit there…" I tried to make myself seem sheepish.

"Anyways, we're also able to talk to our gods or goddesses while we're awake. Have you been able to do that yet?" she asked.

"I haven't tried, no. I would have if I knew it was possible." I added quickly, seeing the slightly disappointed look on her face.

"We also have benefits." She explained. "Only reincarnations are able to run the GSLCs. You'll be fully trained to take the position before you graduate from here. Right now, Thanatos is lined up to run this branch, but I do believe the branch in England will soon need somebody." She smiled proudly at me. "I'll contact them tonight and let them know that you're here. They haven't had someone good to run that place for years!"

There were a few moments of awkward silence before she continued. "I hear you're functionally bilingual?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah. My old school was more advanced."

"Well, I don't usually do this, but if you'd like I can put you in the Defense and offense class in stead of French. You learn how to defend yourself by hand and with your powers. Usually it's only offered as a class for second years, but I can make an exception. Selene tells me that you're more advanced than you should be when it comes to your powers."

"That sounds fun!" I was enthusiastic. "Starting tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yes. You—"a shrill ringing cut off the end of her sentence. She jumped slightly and reached for the phone on her desk. "Hello…? Yes… you're sure…? And he doesn't just want them half gone… okay then. I'll be right there." And she hung up. "Sorry, there's a slight … issue… that I have to deal with. You should probably go put your stuff back in your room and get ready for dinner."

I looked at the clock that was mounted on the wall behind Phoebe's desk. I was surprised to see that it was almost five! "Okay. Thank you for everything!" I called as I grabbed the paper off of her desk and made my way out the door.

It was a relief to get the bag off my shoulders when I walked through the door to my room. I immediately crawled on top of my bed and just lay there until I was almost asleep.

The sound of the door to our apartment opening made me realize that it was probably getting late. Reluctantly, I rolled over and shook the sleep from my brain. Glancing at my watch, I discovered it to be only five thirty. I heaved a huge sigh of annoyance and grabbed my computer out of my luggage. I'd been putting off checking my e-mail for a few days, but it would eventually have to be done. It was probably filled to the brim with hate male which I would take pleasure in deleting. One of the bad sides to being popular was that somehow, everyone had your e-mail and when a nasty rumor was said about you, you'd hear the unwanted opinions of three quarters of the school's population.

I took a deep breath and clicked the little e-mail icon on my desktop. As soon as the page popped up, I covered my eyes in fear—not of the content of the e-mails but of the sheer amount of them. After ten seconds or so, I convinced myself that I was being stupid. I slowly lowered my hand and opened my eyes.

I was extremely shocked to notice that there were only 375 unread messages. I sighed and scrolled to the oldest ones.

I was about to click on one from Ashley when a knock came at my door. "Come in," I called out. Terra opened the door and smiled at me. "Whatcha doin'?" she asked curiously.

"Checking my e-mail." She looked confused at my smirk.

"I'm confused. What's so funny about that?" she asked.

"I used to be popular before…" I trailed off, gesturing to my surroundings. "Anyways, I have 375 unread messages and most of them are probably hate mail." Suddenly I had an idea. "Hey, do you want to go through them with me?" I asked brightly.

Terra looked hesitant. "I don't want to accidentally read anything personal…"

"How about I look at the subject and if it's personal we'll skip it." I reasoned with her.

She paused for a moment, contemplating my suggestion. "Okay!" she finally cried, a big, goofy grin spreading across her face.

We went through about forty of the messages before it was time for dinner. I left my computer on so that we could continue after we got back. As we walked to the dining hall, Terra asked, "So, what did you figure out about Thanatos?"

"The rumor was true from what I could tell. She didn't really elaborate much. She mostly said that her friends were the only ones who would hang out with her, and they made her participate in getting revenge on people who they had grudges against. I don't really think she meant them harm."

Terra smiled. "Cool. Maybe we could hang out for dinner. I don't get that creepy feeling so much anymore."

I totally agreed with her. In fact, I felt the exact same way.

A/N: I'm not too sure about the ending, so I need your honest opinions. I'm also sad because this is my second shortest chapter. Again, if there was anything you didn't get, just leave a review and I'll try to fix and/or explain it.

I'm so proud of me! I wrote about eleven pages in three days! I think that's a little less than fifty-five hundred words!

I've officially decided that I'm done with asking for reviews. They're nice, but I'm writing more for myself than for the publicity. That doesn't get you off the hook for reviewing though. LOL

I have a question for my readers. I won't kill you if you get it wrong and I won't be offended… I'm just curious. The question is: How ow old do you think I am? You can't check any previous chapters, and you aren't allowed to look at my profile. I'll know if you do. Seriously? No. I'm just kidding with you. Seriously though.

Thanks so much for the support! It means so much to me!

Tarah xXx


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: Yes yes, it's short. It's longer than the last one though.

Does anyone think there's too much power involved here?

There's a part about weapons in this chapter. I'll look up the name of the one that I choose and figure out how it works, but I don't know a single thing about weapons… except the fact that they kill people (heheheheheeee! … what did my friend do to me?) so if everything's totally messed up I apologize.

Because it was requested, I'm adding some Norse mythology in here. I hope I don't butcher it too bad. Like I said, I suck at mythology… though this story is making me interested in it a lot more.

For those of you who read chapter 6 before August 10, I changed the chapter slightly. There wasn't a class on the qualities of the stones. I'm not even going to involve them because everything's quite complicated and powerful as it is.

Chapter 7: Lessons

I was in the corner of a darkened room, lit only by candles set out in a large circle on the floor. The person that lay sprawled out in the middle of the circle on their back looked to be unconscious.

Suddenly, the door burst open on the other side of the room and a shortish figure burst through. The figure was shrouded in black, but I could tell by the voice that came out of it that it was a female. I couldn't help thinking that this scene was familiar, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why.

The figure reached into the circle with a gloved hand, sprinkling a light dusting of powder over the unconscious person. "I offer a sacrifice to my goddess. I ask in return for his life force to be mine."

Slowly, the body seemed to melt away into nothingness. The only thing that was left was a specter. The figure reached out with both hands, and the specter moved towards her. As the two figures became one, I heard a faint "Goodbye Zeus, after the god of the skies."

The figure murmured to herself as she exited the room, something about, "…wanted to kill him. His powers were much more useful this way."

As the vision faded, I found myself once again in the grey void. Asteria floated towards me, stepping around the folds and tendrils of mist that clung to her. She smiled as she pulled something out of her pocket, holding it out in front of her in the palm of her hand as though in offering. As she glided closer, I realized that she was probably holding it out so I could see what it was. It almost looked like she was holding a small piece of the void that surrounded us in her hand. She let out a short, musical laugh when she saw that my eyes were focused on the object that was lying in her hand. Her eyes were alight with joy and playfulness. "It's a vary (very) powerful stone." She said in explanation. "It has many amazing qualities, some that have yet to be discovered by mortals."

"What kind of qualities?" I asked.

"That, my daughter, you will have to learn for yourself." She passed the stone to me. It was surprisingly warm, like it had been sitting in her hand for a while. It reminded me of a crystal ball in its shape and texture. It was small—about two inches in diameter—and surprisingly heavy for its size.

"There is a lot of power that can be accessed if it is in the hands of someone who knows enough about it. It can be used for both good and evil. In the wrong hands, it could be deadly. The only person who you may tell is your visions teacher. Keep a close eye on it when she asks to see it. She will do almost anything to get her hands on one. Always keep it with you wherever you go."

I was almost nervous to be in possession of something that was so great in power. I wasn't one to constantly lose things, but I wasn't necessarily amazing at keeping track of my belongings.

"I would also ask you to learn something that will prove extremely important." She continued. "The content of your visions alone isn't the most important thing to note. If you are looking to prevent it, be there to witness it or learn something about it; look at the things around it that indicate the place and time of the vision…"

Waking up wasn't such a strange experience this time. It was like my mind was slowly getting used to the sudden push that sent it careening back into my body at great speeds. I only felt a slight hopelessness and a subtle pressure on my lungs and tear ducts.

Asteria had given me a lot to think about. She must have been explaining about the visions for some reason or another. Maybe she wanted me to prevent the one I'd just seen. The only problem with that was that I didn't know how to use my gifts yet. If the person had enough knowledge to successfully perform a ritual that was so powerful, it was quite likely that they knew how to use their gifts, giving them an advantage over me. On the other hand, if I was able to prepare for it, they might not even know that I was planning to do anything until it was too late.

With a petulant sigh, I thought back to the vision. I tried to do exactly as Asteria had instructed. It was quite difficult, but I was making progress… well, sort of.

When I'd finally successfully recreated the first image in my head, I carefully studied everything that I could see of the room. The room itself was hard to see because it was lit only by candles, but from what I could see, it reminded me of an empty bedroom or maybe a storage room. As I looked around, something shiny caught my eye. Looking closer, I noticed that the person who was being sacrificed was wearing a watch. I squinted at it, almost losing focus of the scene. I willed everything back into focus and resumed my squinting. I could just barely make out the time: 5:35. It didn't say whether it was AM or PM. Why did everything have to be so confusing?

I sighed internally and moved to the next part of the vision: the door opening. I was about to move on again when I remembered something that could be vary important. Every door that I'd seen around the campus had a number or name on it. I glanced at the door, noting that it was numbered room 187. I was about to move on again when I had another idea. I shifted the vision slightly forward until the cloaked person was blocking the number on the door. I could now see out into the hallway. There wasn't any flooring down, and there wasn't any color to the walls. It looked like it was part of a building that was being used for a basement/storage room. There was also a window in the hall. I could only see a sliver of it from where I'd been standing, but I could see that it was still quite light out. I tried to mentally walk forward, but the image didn't change in my mind. I suppose I could understand why. This was me remembering the vision. I didn't step forward in the actual vision itself, so there was nothing that I would remember seeing.

I stared hard at the part of the window that I could see. Everything went blurry around it, but it was easier to focus when that happened. I could only see a bit of the building's surroundings, but the part that I could see was extremely familiar. I recognized it to be the building in which Phoebe's office was located. With a gasp, the vision shattered in my mind. I had everything that I needed to know in order to stop the vision from happening. What was more, I now remembered where I'd seen the vision before. It had been the night before Dike was killed, and I had no doubts that I'd watched her death before it had even happened. The question now was who would stop this one? I was the only one who knew anything about the visions I'd been having.

That meant only one thing. I was the only one who could stop the vision. Asking for help would be too risky.

As I became aware of my surroundings again, I felt the weight of the stone that Asteria had given me resting in my palm. I lifted it up close to my face to get a better look at it. It didn't feel like a stone, but it didn't feel like glass either. It was almost like a combination of the two. When I lifted it more so that the skylight was behind it, I was even more curious. It almost looked to be translucent. I shook it slightly, but it was completely solid. It was almost like a large marble.

Suddenly, my alarm clock blared to life, scaring the living daylights out of me. I quickly slipped the stone under my sheets, reaching for the "off" button.

As I got ready for the day, I made sure to always keep the strange object somewhere on me. I was almost in a haze as I got dressed and straightened my hair. The only thing I could think about was what the strange object was for. I didn't even know what it was—more accurately, I didn't know what it was capable of. The only thing I knew was that it almost felt like it was weighing me down. My pocket felt ten times heavier than I was.

I made a plan as I walked to breakfast. I would grab something that I could carry, and I would try to find Nyx before class started. She could explain what the object did. I told myself that it was only weighing me down because of its strangeness, but I knew that I was just trying to convince myself of that. My goddess had said that it was potentially deadly in the wrong hands. I was afraid that something would happen to it somehow. If I knew about it, I may be able to protect it better, but I had a feeling that the knowledge I was seeking would just make the object feel even heavier.

I first went to the visions classroom in search of Nyx. I had no idea where her office was, and I would waste too much time trying to find out.

When I first opened the door, I couldn't see anyone in the room. I was about to back out when Nyx came out of a door that I hadn't noticed before. She stopped in surprise when she saw me, but she was quick to smile and welcome me in. "Is there anything I can help you with?" she asked warmly.

I hesitated for a moment, hoping that Asteria was right about the fact that I could trust her. I mentally shook myself. Of course she was right! Why wouldn't she be?

"My goddess… gave me something… last night…" I stuttered. I sounded ridiculous, but Nyx just smiled, silently encouraging me to continue. "She said it was a stone or something… actually she didn't say what it was." I was a bit more confident now.

I was about to retrieve the object from my pocket when someone entered the room through the door that Nyx had used just moments before. She had long dark hair and wide eyes—she looked like she could be Nyx's twin. It was difficult to tell them apart.

"Nyx?" she called. She froze when she saw me. "I… am sorry…" she stared at me for a long time. "You must be Asteria's first Reincarnation." She said finally.

I nodded. "H-How'd you know?" I asked. I was slightly scared. For one thing, she somehow knew who I was. Add to that the fact that if she'd walked in only five seconds later she would have seen what Asteria had told me that only Nyx could see, and you get a problem that I was supposed to avoid.

"It's my main gift." She stated. "The gift of knowledge."

I hesitated for a moment before asking another question. "I don't mean to be rude, but who are you exactly?"

She let out a short, melodic laugh. "I am Nat. Nyx and I are sisters of the Night." A long, awkward pause followed her declaration.

"So, what is it that you wanted to show me?" Nyx asked. Not seeming to notice the fact that all the confidence I'd managed to gather was completely gone.

"I-I … I mean…" I stuttered, glancing at Nat out of the corner of my eye.

"You would prefer to talk to Nyx alone." The statement had no emotion to it; it was simply a fact. I nodded slightly. "Before I go, I will tell you that there is no need to worry. I know what it is that you want to show her. Trust me when I say, I will keep your secret safe." She smiled warmly at me as she turned and left.

As soon as I was sure that she was gone, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the object, holding it up for her to see.

Nyx just gasped. "Your goddess gave you that?" she asked breathlessly.

"Y… Yes…?"

"May I see it?"

I held it out to her. "Do you mind if… Can I hold it?" I asked a bit awkwardly. She nodded dazedly.

"The stone of truth… of trust… of life and death…" she muttered to herself.

"Asteria told me to ask you what it was." I explained stupidly.

"It's known by many names because it can do many different things. You can use it to know if someone's telling the truth for one thing. People who already have that as one of their gifts can use the stone to detect half-truths in a statement, and even to learn the truth. You can also use it to determine whether or not someone is trustworthy. There have also been rumors that it can be used to sense death, but I'm not sure if that's true… I've never seen one of these in person before… this is simply amazing!" she was extremely enthusiastic about my gift. Suddenly, her face became calmer. "It takes a lot of training to work it of course. If it were easy to use it, someone could have everything they could possibly need right at their fingertips. You absolutely cannot let anyone know you have it." She finished frantically.

"How do I learn to use it?" I asked.

"I don't know." Nyx seemed sorry that she couldn't help me. "I have papers on it, but they don't say anything about how it works. Usually that means that it depends on the user. It's different for everyone."

"I don't understand though. Why are they so rare?" I asked.

"They only exist in the otherworld. The otherworld is where you go after death. You can't get one yourself without dying. Only a god or goddess can bring one to you if they feel you're worthy. More than that, they're almost impossible to make. Nobody except our ancestors know how to do it."

As she finished speaking, a bell rang in the distance. It was the bell to signal that it was time for class. I had more questions, but they would have to wait. Bad things would happen if someone had overheard our conversation. I quickly thanked Nyx, slipping the stone back into my pocket. I made sure nobody saw me when I quickly transferred it into my backpack.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I almost forgot that there was a change in my schedule. Of course, that resulted in me being late for my first Defense and Offense class. It was one bad impression that I really hoped to avoid for many reasons. The people in the class were probably all much more experienced than me, which could possibly mean I'd be in a lot of pain when the class ended because I couldn't defend myself to save my life. There was also the fact that the teacher was a descendant of Aries, god of war. He was nice, but his voice and muscular build made him look extremely intimidating.

When I got to the gym where the class was being held, I discovered that I didn't have to worry too much about being late for the class after all. Aries was still getting out some strange-looking equipment from a large storage room. He brought out another load, but he caught sight of me before he could go back for more. He walked over to me, holding out his large hand. "You must be Asteria." He said in greeting. He had a firm handshake. "I'm Aries.(")

"We do some work with our gifts in this class, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem for you. Selene tells me you're quite advanced for a first-year. Today you won't be working with the rest of the students anyway. Everyone who does this class gets special personalized equipment. We have to find out what weapon will suit you best." The expression on his face scared me. He looked like finding and using weapons was his favorite pastime.

Before I could ask any questions, he turned to face the rest of the class. "Today you're going to play a game. You can use your weapons to get other people out. You can hide behind the blocks, but only for ten seconds at a time. Make sure your protective gear is on tightly and properly. I want you to work on fusing them with your gifts like we practiced."

He looked back at me smiling and gestured with his hand to follow him. We went into the large storage room where he'd gotten the equipment from. When we entered, I noticed that it held weapons of every shape and size. Everything from knife sets to daggers, swords and maces hung on all four walls. It almost reminded me of a mini training room. There was also a large dart board on the wall opposite the door.

Aries went over to the wall on the left side of the door. He reached for a bow and arrow set, but his hand paused just inches away from it. "Unfortunately there isn't an easier way to find a weapon than trying each one." He explained. "First, you have to feel the weapon in your hands. You can't use a weapon that doesn't feel right. Then once we find the comfortable-feeling ones, we have to see which one you can instinctively use without training.

"My class isn't about learning to use the weapons themselves, because everyone is bonded to one particular weapon. That basically means you automatically know how it works. If you were to fight with the person who had the twin weapon to yours, there would never be a winner; even if the other person has worked with their weapon for ten times as long as you have. Also, you can never lose the weapon that you're bonded with. It will always come back to you.(")

He paused for a moment. "Is there anything in particular that you've worked with here before?" He asked. I looked around me at all the weapons hanging on the walls. Honestly, I didn't even know what most of them were.

Aries must have seen the lost look on my face, because he added, "Does anything… stand out to you here?"

I shook my head and he sighed. "This is going to take a while.(")

~! #$%^&*()_+

We had been searching the shelves for a half hour. So far, we'd covered everything on the left wall and there were only four weapons that felt sort of comfortable in my hands. There was a mace, a knife set, a spear and a sword. "Why don't we try these out first?" Aries suggested wearily.

I nodded and picked up the spear. "How does this thing work?" I asked.

"That's not the right one." Aries said immediately.

I had no idea how he knew, but I put it down all the same, reaching for the bow and arrows. I tried to figure out how it worked when Aires's voice interrupted me. "That's not the right one either.

With a sigh, I reached for the knife set. I grabbed one of the knives and tried to throw it at the bulls-eye across the room. The knife spun wildly in the air, weakly hit the outer ring and fell to the ground with a thud.

"Better." Aries commented. "Your grip was good, which would mean that knives are most likely your thing. The handle of that one is too heavy though." He walked over to the other side of the room and inspected a knife set. He picked one of the knives up, shook his head and put it back down. He did this about eight or nine times before he brought another set over to me. "How do these ones feel?" he asked.

I grabbed one of the knives from his hand. It was surprisingly warm. I held it up, adjusted it in my hand and threw it at the dead center of the board. The next thing I knew, the knife had lodged itself in the dead center of the small circle with a small thunk. I grinned as I turned to face Aries. "I like those ones." I laughed.

A/N: just in case you missed the note at the top, does anyone think there's too much power involved here?

She was able to re-see the vision with perfect clarity because it's part of her gift. If that doesn't make sense, you know what to do.

I would have put the name of the stone in a different language, but my Google translate hates me right now… yeah… I can't figure out how to make the damned thing work…

Is it wrong to advertise myself in an A/N? I've seen it done… if you're bored, go check me out on YouTube! I sing. My channel is called "csawler", but you can also search "Tarah Sawler". Yeah, that's my name. I love criticism because I know I'm not perfect… well kinda. LOL

Again, thanks for all your support!

Tarah xXx


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: This was going to be a part of the last chapter. Even though the last one was quite short, a lot happened so I decided to split it up.

For those of you who like action, this will be the first action scene in here. I'm not sure how many there will be though… I'm not good at action… or romance…

I'm not sure if I told anyone this, but I changed chapter 2 a bit. She finds out that she was adopted. You can go back and re-read if you want.

Thanks to jnl94, Gr1m, Mazarine, Daytonius, nameTBWW (aka .xoxo on FF) and klaralouw for reviewing! Most of you even reviewed more than once! I love feedback! XDDD

Thanks so so much to my beta amai-chan1993! You're totally awesome just for being able to put up with me! LOL

Chapter 8: Failed Attempts and Consolations

As soon as my last class of the day was dismissed, I sprinted towards the offices section of the campus where the sacrificial vision that I'd seen the night before had taken place. I wanted to get there long before the vision would happen, but I knew that wasn't possible because of classes.

I was running so fast that it felt like my feet weren't even touching the ground. I unconsciously looked down and gasped at the strange site that was my feet hovering about four inches above the path! I lost my focus completely, falling face-first onto the gravel. After a moment, I picked myself back up, dusted my skirt off and continued to run.

It was when my feet left the ground again that I suddenly had an idea. My happiness and wonder were so strong that I almost fell again, but I caught myself just in time. I wondered if I could somehow manipulate the air to make me move faster. Getting to the building was taking longer than I wanted it to. I tried to focus on a gale coming up from behind me and pushing me forward. For a brief moment, everything passed by me so fast that it was almost a blur. I lost my focus again, this time out of shock. Instead of doing another face plant though, I somehow managed to keep sprinting. After that, I decided not to try it again until I could get a better handle on that particular gift.

About thirty seconds later(,) I reached the pathway that led to the offices. I knew which building held Phoebe's, so I tried to find a window on the building opposite it that would give me a view of the front doors.

After about two minutes of searching, I realized that it wouldn't be much use trying to find it that way. It would probably be much easier to get into the building, find room 187 and stand guard outside the door.

I scanned the front of the building with my eyes. when I spotted the door, I sprinted towards it at full speed.

The inside of the building looked like it used to hold offices at some point in time and the reception area held a front desk that looked like it was on the brink of collapsing. All the furniture and flooring looked like it was last in use in the 1950s. Two hallways branched off to the right and left of the main room. I checked the room numbers for the doors closest to me. From what I could tell, the rooms on the left went from 101 to 150 and the rooms on the right went from 151 to 200 So I started down the hallway on the right.

I walked for a minute or so and then checked the door closest to me to see the number. I did this a few times until I found the room I was looking for.

A thought came to me as I stood outside the door. The hallway only turned two times, one at room 160 and one at room 190. It was straight between the two turns. The person would be able to see me as soon as they turned the first corner. I looked frantically around, trying to find somewhere nearby to hide. My eyes eventually landed on the door that I was guarding. Experimentally, I leaned against the door to see if I would stick out past the overly large door frame. I was happy to see that it stuck out more than I could hope for. If I squished myself against the door hard enough, the door frame stuck out a few inches past my foot. It wasn't the best hiding place, but I wouldn't be noticed until it was too late.

I stood there silently for a few minutes, straining my ears to hear even the tiniest sound. It was only about five minutes after I'd arrived that I heard a door opening. I glanced down at my watch, surprised to see that it was only 5:25. Had my vision been wrong or was it just someone else coming in for some other reason?

I leaned closer to the door As the footsteps came down the hall towards me. Right about then, I figured it was probably the person in my vision. Briefly, I wondered if I had been wrong about the time. Could visions be wrong?

When the person was about fifteen feet away, I stuck my head out of the door frame to get a look at them. What I saw made my blood run cold. The person who was walking towards me was wearing an inky black cloak, just like in my vision. I had the feeling of déjà-vu as I stared at the figure. I had known somewhere in my mind that the only person who would come in here would be the person to perform the ritual, but it still hadn't fully registered. Staring at the hooded figure, I felt a sudden burst of fear. What had I gotten myself into?

In my terror and wonder, I'd forgotten to pull my head back in. The figure under the cloak lifted their head suddenly. A moment later, they went sprinting down the hall in the opposite direction.

It took my brain a minute to catch up with what had just happened. As soon as it did, I sprinted after her.

We were equally fast. I could only see two ways for this to end. One of us would give out. If it was me, the person would get away. If it was them… I had no idea what would happen. I suppose it would all depend on who was hiding behind the cloak.

I followed the person back the way we'd come. We ran out the front door, taking a left towards the center of the campus.

She took a right before she reached the end of the path. I followed her between two buildings and then back onto another path.

After chasing her for a few minutes, I started to understand a part of her strategy. She seemed to be running circles around the buildings on the campus. I suddenly got an idea as we weaved in and out of the recreational buildings on the innermost circle.

As she swerved to go around yet another building, I made a split-second decision to meet her coming around the other way. I estimated that it should take her just less than a minute to come around the corner of the building, bringing her face-to-face with me. I put my hands on my knees, gasping for breath as I waited.

One minute passed and nobody had shown up yet. I was starting to get nervous. What if her intentions were to make me think I knew her running strategies and then go in the opposite way just as I would cut them off?

Another minute passed with no sign of her when I finally decided that enough was enough. I turned and sprinted back around the circular paths. I eventually realized that it would have been quicker if I'd cut through the center of the circle of recreational buildings. I slapped myself on the side of the head as I kept running. I would wallow in my stupidity later.

I ran down the path that branched off to the right. I then decided that I would go stand by the door to room 187. Nobody could get past if I stood there.

I checked my watch as I reached the main doors of the building, noting that it was 5:40. For a moment, a wonderful feeling filled me. I'd at least succeeded in delaying the vision. My strides didn't falter as I pushed the heavy door aside and turned down the hallway to the right.

As soon as I could see the door, a horrible sinking feeling rooted me to my spot. It wasn't the site of the door that told me I'd failed, it was the black cloak that disappeared around the next corner. There was no use in chasing her now. The deed was already done.

With a heavy heart, I turned around and left the building.

I thought about how stupid I'd been as I made my way back to my dorm. Why couldn't I have just cut through the middle of the circular campus? Why couldn't I have used my gift for air to make myself move faster in order to catch her?

The ringing of my phone broke me out of my thoughts. I jumped slightly and scrambled to get the device out of my backpack.

"Hello? I called through the phone.

"Hey hun," it was my mum.

"Hey mum, what's up?"

"Nothing much. How's it going? Are you settling in okay?"

I sighed. "Yeah. Things are a bit crazy, but I'm settling in."

"Things are crazy? What's going on there?" she sounded concerned.

I tried to find a way to phrase it without making it seem like a cheesy super hero story. "Someone's doing this weird ritual thing to random people. Nobody knows who's doing it. They think it's someone from the school."

"Are you sure you can't come home?"

"I'm sure."

A long pause followed in which I regretted telling my mum about what was going on. Finally, she spoke up. "How are your classes?"

"They're good." I could tell that there was something in particular that she wanted to talk about, but I didn't push her.

Finally, she asked her question. "Have you thought much about what we talked about before you left?" she asked anxiously.

I grinned sheepishly. "Uh… no, not really." I let myself think about the fact of my adoption for a moment. Now that I'd cooled down and gotten over the shock of it, I found that my thoughts on the matter were clear and rational.

"Well… I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. You can talk to me if you'd like. Actually, I might have your mother's contact information somewhere. Would you like me to dig it out so you can talk to her?"

A thrill ran through me at her words. I could actually talk to my real birth mother. "That would be awesome!" I cried enthusiastically.

I heard a shuffling sound on the other end of the phone. A few seconds later my mum came back. "Sorry. I had to find the number. It's 356-5389."

"Thanks!" I called. "I don't really have anything to write it down on, so I'll put the number in my phone. I'll call you back tomorrow." I rushed my words out.

"356-5389. 356-5389. 356-5389." I chanted to myself as I searched for the place to add a new contact on my phone.

I reached the door to my building a few seconds later. I went in, took off my coat and shoes and made my way to my room.

I sat on my bed holding my phone in my hand. I eventually decided to try calling my birth mother. Maybe I could get to know her a bit. I took a deep breath and hit the call button.

I held my breath as the phone rang once, twice, three times. "Hello?"

"H-hi…" my palms were sweating and my heart was racing. "Is this Asteria?" I asked timidly.

"Yes it is hun. Can I help you?" she sounded so nice.

I tried to think of how to put my next words. Things would get extremely awkward if I just said "You're my mother."

"Hello?"

"Uh… I… I mean, I… My name is also Asteria." I finally managed to stutter out.

"Ahhh. So you're my daughter." It wasn't a question.

"Y-yes ma'am."

She laughed. I could almost hear the laugh of our ancestor in the musical sound. "You can call me Asteria." She said. "I was expecting a call from you."

"You were?" I squeaked.

"Yes. I knew that you would be the goddess Asteria's reincarnation. I knew that your mother still had my contact information. It was right of me to expect a call from my daughter, was it not?"

Right about then, my nerves disappeared completely. " You're right." I admitted. I instantly regretted the next question I blurted out. "Clairvoyance is your main gift, right?"

"Yes(,) my dear. Why do you ask?"

"Have you ever had to stop a vision before?" I asked. I couldn't control anything that came out of my mouth. I was scared stiff of what I was going to say next.

"Yes, a few times." I could tell that she still didn't know where this was going. Neither did I.

"I was supposed to do that today. I failed." I said miserably.

"You're only in your first year, right?" she asked.

"Yes,"

"You shouldn't be learning that yet."

"It's not for class." I proceeded to explain about the sacrificial rituals that I'd seen in my visions.

"What our goddess asked you to do, you only learn that in your fourth year. It can be a very tedious process sometimes. You shouldn't have run after her though. If she knows how to do a ritual as powerful as that, she wouldn't be in her first year there. She'd easily be able to trick you like she did in order to do the ritual undisturbed." Asteria consoled.

Her words brought me an instantaneous relief. I still felt guilty for not being able to save the reincarnation of Zeus, but the amount of guilt had lessened considerably. Even though I'd known my real mother for only a few minutes, it felt like I'd known her for so much longer. We had a mother-daughter bond.

"Do you think maybe I could meet you?" I asked a bit hesitantly.

"Of course! We don't have to plan a specific time. I have a job, so I'm only available at nights and on weekends. Whenever you feel like coming over, I'll know."

"How?" I asked, astonished.

"I'm sure you've figured that one out by now. Our visions are of the true future. It's one of the first things you learn about how to use your visions. Since you're Asteria's reincarnation, I'm sure you've already experienced visions that you yourself have brought on." I could hear the pride in her voice. I realized that she was right. I'd seen the next few months of my old best friend's future. My mother had probably done the same thing.

Her voice cut through my thoughts. "One more thing before I go: the stone that our goddess gave you? Please bring it with you when you visit me. I have one that's similar and I'd love to show you how it works. It's so much more wonderful than how your visions teacher described it." Her voice seemed almost distant and filled with longing.

I was shocked to say the least. How did she know that I'd talked to Nyx about the mysterious stone that I'd been given?

She laughed when I asked the question. "You're forgetting that I'm clairvoyant, my dear. I know these things."

"Yes, but how do you see things in so much detail? When I checked up on my friend, I was only able to get the gist of her near future."

"You're getting ahead of yourself there, my darling. I've had 250 years of practice. You shouldn't ask how I can do these things. In 250 years from now, you'll be able to do even more than I can." The pride in her voice was back. I was amazed. She seemed so powerful and confident in her prediction. I had no choice but to believe her.

"Wait, where do you live?" I asked quickly just as she was about to hang up a few moments later.

She laughed and gave me her address. "I'll see you soon, my daughter." Were her parting words.

~! #$%^&*()_+

I was starting to get used to the grey void that the goddess Asteria took me to every night. It didn't seem nearly as disorienting as it did the first time. Of course, the reason why it didn't bother me so much probably had something to do with the fact that Asteria waited there for me to fall asleep each night, so I wasn't alone upon arrival. That night was no different. As I drifted off to sleep, I found Asteria waiting for me in the void.

"Hello my daughter." She smiled serenely at me.

"Hi," I said a bit lamely.

"I am guessing that you are upset because you were unable to prevent the vision." I felt like she could see right through me. I admired the fact that she was one to get to the point of conversations and cut out the pointless small talk.

"Yes. I talked to my mother though. She said that people only learned that in their forth year at the GSLC."

"That is true. I hoped that you would be able to stop the vision though. You are more advanced than the others. On the other hand, the art of preventing visions is something that takes a lot of practice to accomplish. Your mother was right though, you shouldn't have chased her."

I bowed my head in shame. "I did a lot of stupid things." I said sadly.

"Sometimes we can't think straight when we're in situations such as that." Were her consoling words.

Yes, I've learned that the hard way."

"I will once again warn you of something. Hopefully, you can avoid learning this lesson the hard way. There is someone who you have let into your circle of friends who is untrustworthy. There is also someone who you do not trust. Your untrustful feelings towards them will lead to their downfall. The events that I have warned you about a few nights before will start to happen soon. The trustworthy one will try to save you, but it will not help in the end. It is their attempts that will cause their own death." I had no idea what to say to that. Her riddles were too abstract to figure out right now. I could clearly understand what would happen, but it was an outline only. I had no idea who would be involved and who would die.

I could understand one thing as clear as day though: things would get very messy, very soon.

A/N: I hate writing chapters that are so short! At least this one doesn't have huge A/Ns… well kinda… LOL

I can almost promise that the others will be longer again… almost. LOL

I was working a bit with my beta and I wrote an outline for the rest of the story. There will be about 16 chapters I believe… unless something happens. My ideas tend to get away from me sometimes, so it's quite possible that there will be something that will change things… LOL

The support means so much! I love you guys! (:

Tarah xXx


	10. Chapter 9: Revoked Invitation and JobDay

A/N: I'll warn you now; this chapter isn't long like I promised. I'll try harder next time.

Sadly for me, school has… has started… *sob*. Anyway, teachers have this terrible habit of giving loads of homework. Ok not loads, but I'm not used to it yet. The point is that I won't be getting chapters out so fast anymore, even though they weren't coming out fast to start with. I'd say it's reasonable to expect one per month or maybe two every three months… I really don't know yet. I don't even want to experience university homework… *shudders*

There is a song in here. Before you go saying anything, I wrote it myself, so it's allowed… I think. Just sayin'.

This is the halfway point of the story. As I've said, I've planned out the rest. The second half should be easier for me to write. I feel like it's easier to write the scenes where important things actually happen. XD

Thanks so much to all who reviewed, alerted and aavorited! It means a lot that you're reading.

Thanks to amai-chan1993 for her amazing beta skills!

Chapter 9: Revoked Invitation and Job Day

The next morning dawned bright and chilly. As soon as I got out of bed, I made a mental note to grab a sweater before I left. I grabbed the robe that was hanging on the back of my door, wrapping it tightly around me.

When I came out of my room, the first thing I saw was Terra, Athena and Venus sitting on one of our couches and talking excitedly. Before I could even ask what was going on, Terra ran over to me, grabbed both my hands and started jumping up and down.

"What's going on?" I asked sleepily.

"Job day!" Terra squealed right in my ear, making me flinch. I gave her a confused look.

"Job day. In each gift class, you get to learn about the jobs that involve your gift. You choose one and you go through training. That's how you get paid. I already have a job. I'm still in training for it actually, but I'll have it maybe by the end of the year!"

I perked up a bit. I was looking forward to getting a job before I'd been found to be a descendant, but I hadn't gotten around to getting one yet. My excitement grew exponentially when I thought of all the job opportunities that had to do with my gifts. "What's your job going to be?" I asked curiously.

"I'm going to help keep the school's shield in place."

"What about after you graduate?" I wondered aloud

"I'll keep up the shields for the GSLCs." Terra was too excited this morning.

"Why are the shields so important?" I blurted. I regretted it as soon as it came out.

"They're not as important here because the weather isn't so bad, but down in the states it's more important to protect the campuses from storms and intruders in some cases." Terra didn't seem overly put out by my question.

"I'm learning to turn myself into the air for long periods of time so I can protect people." Athena cut in proudly. "I could even do surveillance."

"I have to be a healer." Venus was glum. "According to my teachers, I have to "get my head out of my ass and treat people right"." She sneered the words.

I pressed my lips together in a tight line to prevent the laughter. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Terra was attempting to do the same. Her attempts were in vain though, because a moment later, the loud laughter that burst from her lips made me jump in shock. Venus pouted petulantly, and a moment later, Athena and I were laughing right with Terra. Venus got up and stomped to her room, slamming the door behind her; she reminded me of myself as a young child.

~! #$%^&*()_+

As soon as we entered the cafeteria, I realized just how much of a big deal job day was. Everyone was so full of excitement that you could almost feel an electrifying energy in the air. The noise level in the large room was twice as high as normal. I couldn't help but feel a spike of excitement jump into my throat as I watched their enthusiastic interactions. Even the first-years who had no idea what it was all about seemed so lively and interested in the explanations of some of the jobs that the older students were giving.

Thanatos found me near the buffet. She tapped me on the shoulder, making me jump a little.

"Hey!" she yelled to me over the noise.

I turned to face her. "Hey!" I called back.

"What's up?"

"Nothing much, you?"

"Not much. Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my apartment this weekend. We could watch a movie or something."

I agreed immediately. I hadn't made any previous plans for the weekend. It would be fun to get to know her better; she seemed really nice. We made plans to meet up on Saturday afternoon and watch _Bridesmaids._

People started leaving for their first classes five to ten minutes earlier than usual. I had to laugh at their enthusiasm. It didn't take a rocket scientist to notice how much more awake everyone was at the mention of jobs. My mum said her job was stressful, and I was wondering when people would learn that for themselves.

The atmosphere in the visions classroom wasn't much different. Nyx had trouble settling everyone down so she could start the lesson.

Once we were all calmed, she proceeded to talk about the reason that we were so riled up in the first place. "As most of you know, today is job day. Each class you have today will be dedicated to learning about the jobs that you could do with the particular skill that you're learning about. You'll choose one by the end of the day and the visions class in the afternoon will be dedicated to job training."

Once again, the noise level raised in the classroom. Nyx raise her hands, and silence fell once again. "Right now though, we'll be working on mythology." Everyone groaned, but Nyx just smiled at us. "You'll have a visions class again later today." And thus begun the anticipatory fidgeting.

Everyone gave a sigh of relief when the bell rang an hour and a half later. The classroom emptied in record timing. I gave a little wave to Nyx as I exited the door, pushed along by the excited crowd.

I couldn't help sprinting to the air classroom. Athena's job sounded interesting, and I wondered what other jobs involved that specific gift.

Selene was standing by the door to the classroom. She passed me a sheet of paper as I went past her and through the door. I sat at a desk and put my bag down before I looked at the paper. The first thing I saw was a note scrawled messily across the top:

To Asteria:

You can choose a job to be trained for, but you'll only be trained half the time. The other half will be spent training to become a leader of a GSLC because of your status as a reincarnation.

Come to my office after dinner to discuss.

Phoebe

I smiled to myself before reading the paper. It was a list of the possible jobs that I could be trained for that had to do with Air. I saw Athena's job on the list along with about a dozen others, though hers sounded the most interesting to me.

During the class period, Selene described each job in more detail. Some of them sounded more interesting, but there were a few that sounded terrible. I suppose it would be a matter of opinion though, because some students looked excited at the thought of being an express taxi service for descendants.

The healing 101 class wasn't so much about the jobs. The only thing you could use that gift for was… well… healing, so there wasn't much use in spending the class talking about it.

Instead, we worked on searching for injuries. This time there were four people who were injured, so we got into four groups and took turns. We were instructed to put our hands on their shoulders and send our gift through our hands and into their bodies. The power of the healing would be attracted to the places that it was needed. I had a bit of difficulty trying to hold my gift back, but I was able to complete the exercise without too much trouble.

The jobs that were involved with shifting were more interesting. The one that sounded the coolest to me was a spy of sorts. You'd use your shifting to change yourself into a different person when you'd do your job so that it would be almost impossible for anyone to catch you. There was also a job where you could be a stunt double for an actor, but you'd need additional training in acrobatics, which… let's just say, I've had enough bad experiences with gymnastics, so I knew better than to choose that job.

Some of the jobs that were associated with visions seemed more like slavery than jobs, but there were a few that were interesting. You could be a fortune teller at the Descendant circus for one thing. That was a job that didn't require too much training. You could also be an assassin, which I didn't really understand. Apparently, you'd use your visions to intersect your target when they're least expecting it. You'd need extra training with your weapon of choice if that was the job you chose. It was wierd to watch Nyx as she described the job to the class; she was such a gentil person, and the image of her doing that job just didn't work for me. As I looked at the list, I wondered what job my biological mother had. I hoped she was sensible enough to choose anything but "predicting" stock prices. I mean, really? Predicting stock prices? Just… wow.

Math and English were self-explanatory. You could be a math teacher for math, and an English teacher, editor or novelist for English. I could tell that not many people would choose those jobs, because everyone rushed out of the classrooms as soon as they could.

Offense and defense class was… interesting, to say the least. The first thing that Ares suggested was that you could be on an assassin team with a person who has the gift of visions. The look on his face as he described the jobs reminded me of a kid in a candy store. To be honest, I was quite scared of him right then. Every job he described was violent and somewhat dangerous. I promised myself right then that I wouldn't do anything that involved violence, even if it was in the name of justice. I'd been thinking about being a cop before I'd known I was a descendant. Now, every time I even thought about doing a job like that, the look on Ares's face as he described all the gore and bloody encounters would flash in my mind, and I'd make a mental note not to think about it again.

As soon as my last Visions class of the day was let out, I found myself with more than two hours of free time. I took out my map and looked at the inner extracurricular ring, hoping that it would give me ideas of what I could do. I didn't really want to go for a swim in the wine glass, I had no desire whatsoever to work out, and I had no use for drama equipment. The two buildings that sounded the most appealing were the art studio and the music studio. I was fairly good at sculpting, and I'd taken music lessons for ten years.

I debated between the two for about five minutes. Finally, my intense need to write a song won over. I followed the path that lead to the music studio. My hands were just itching to touch the piano keys.

The building was quite large and was covered in grey bricks with an old-looking heavy wooden door.

The inside smelled a bit musty. The floors were carpeted and the walls were paneled with wood. As soon as you walked in the door, there were three hallways: one for brass instruments, one for stringed instruments and pianos, and one for percussion instruments. On each door, there was a sign that said what specific instruments were kept in that room.

After searching for about five minutes, I finally found a room that said "piano" on the door. The room was relatively small. There were music stands pushed up against the walls, which were a beige color. There was a small window that was high on one wall. Late afternoon sun filtered through it and onto the ceiling. The piano itself was older; I really hoped that it wasn't in too much disrepair.

I pulled out the bench—which had started losing its stuffing a long time ago—and sat on it. It groaned slightly under my weight, but it seemed like it would survive for at least one more day.

I stretched out my hands and rested my fingertips gently on the keys. My right foot reached for the sustain petal. I took a deep breath and began to play the intro to one of the songs I'd written a while ago.

When the world

Turns to dark

And I can't

Find my way

Through the night,

Will you give

Me your hand?

Will you be

There to make

It alright?

The lyrics sort of reflected my feelings right now. It almost felt like I was wandering through a minefield—one wrong move and I was dead. Would there be someone to help me when/if I made a wrong move?

Will you stay

Next to me

When the world

Turns against me?

Will you do

What you can

To get me through?

Or will you leave

me alone?

Either way

I will know.

My life

Depends

On you.

~! #$%^&*()_+

I was walking along the path back to my room when I saw Thanatos. She had this strange look on her face that didn't seem to suit her. As soon as she spotted me, she waved and jogged over.

"Um…" the word came out more like a squeak. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"Something came up this weekend… my mum wants me home for some reason. Can we re-schedule our fun day?" she looked a little nervous.

I was a bit disappointed, but I agreed anyway. "Maybe next weekend?" I asked.

"Sure." She looked more comfortable again. As she turned away, I could swear that I saw a satisfied glint in her eye.

As I continued walking along the path, I couldn't get what I'd seen—or at least what I'd thought I'd seen—out of my head. If I'd truly seen satisfaction in her eyes, what was it that she was so satisfied about? She seemed genuinely nervous and regretful when she'd told me the news. I couldn't quite wrap my head around what I'd seen.

~! #$%^&*()_+

Phoebe began to speak as soon as the door to her office shut behind me with a light click.

"I was thinking," Phoebe started. She took a deep breath and continued. "and I had this idea. We're supposed to train everyone at every GSLC to use all their gifts to the best of their abilities and then some. I know that you have an extra gift, being a reincarnation and all, so I think we should find someone to help you find out what the extra gift is and teach you how to train the gift. You'll most likely have to do research on how the gift works, which will be harder because there haven't been any other reincarnations of Asteria. It will be harder, but it won't be impossible. You could probably ask your goddess, but she wouldn't be able to tell you what the gift is…" she took a huge breath and continued. "Athena's main gift is knowledge, so she might be the best person to help you. If you aren't comfortable with that, I can find someone else-"

I held up my hands. "Hang on a sec! I missed half of that. Could you maybe go a bit slower?"

She took a few deep breaths and summarized what she'd just said. "I think you should get someone to help you discover your extra gift. Then you should ask your goddess to give you clues on how to use it. Athena might be the best option because her main gift is knowledge."

"Oh." I frowned slightly. "How would her gift help me?"

"The gift of knowledge doesn't necessarily make you smart. The gift helps you to be more perceptive. It only really works for you if you know how to take what it's telling you and interpret it so that it makes sense. We have a joke that the gift comes straight from the gods because it will never give you a straight answer. Anyway, Athena is one of the best students in that class. Since you know her, I figured she'd be the best person to help you. She could probably do it tonight if you hurry back to your room now."

I was about to leave when I remembered why she'd summoned me in the first place. "Didn't you say something about GSLC training?"

She looked confused for a moment, but then her face lit up. "Yes. It wasn't written on your schedule, but job training is every day for an hour after dinner. You complete the training long before you graduate. I was thinking that you could take Monday and Friday nights off to train for my position. Maybe we could meet in my office?"

It took a second for all the information to sink in. "Sure," I said a bit dazedly.

Phoebe grinned. "Have you chosen your other job yet?"

I'd thought about it a bit while I'd been singing. "I think I want to be a healer."

~! #$%^&*()_+

I was a bit nervous to ask Athena for help. Even though we slept no more than twenty feet apart, I didn't really know her very well. I had this thing about asking random people for help. Okay, I know she's not a random person, but still…

I knocked timidly on her bedroom door and it was opened seconds later. Athena stepped into the hall. She was still wearing her uniform. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Uh, I was wondering… well… Phoebe told me to ask you if you could help me find out what my extra gift was." I pushed my words out in rapid succession.

I could hardly understand what it was that I'd said, but Athena seemed to make at least a bit of sense out of the nervous gibberish that had spewed out of my mouth. "Sure. It'll give me a chance to practice with my gift a bit. Come on in." she smiled as she opened the door to her room a bit wider, stepping aside so I could get past her.

Her room was similar to mine. The main difference was that her walls were a peach color in stead of blue. The room itself was quite bare; there weren't any pictures on the walls, dresser or night tables, and she had no clothes lying around. The only sign that someone actually lived in there was the neat stack of papers that sat on her perfectly made bed.

We sat across from each other in the middle of the floor. I linked my fingers together on my lap as I waited for her to explain more about how her gift worked.

Athena took a deep breath. "My gift isn't just knowledge. Certain things are pointed out to me by my gift, and I just have to make sense of them. I'm not sure how to go about finding your gift though. I haven't learned how to summon the knowledge yet. I usually just take what the gift gives me." She took a deep breath. "Has Phoebe had any ideas about what your gift might be?"

I thought for a second. "I think she said something about visiting and controlling people's dreams…?" it came out as more of a question than a statement.

"Good, we have something to work with. Now, we just have to figure out what it is that you can do so that I'll get some idea from my gift." She fell into her thoughts again. I sat there and watched her as she stared absently at the door to her room. I didn't quite understand what it was that she was looking for.

She sat there, thinking for about five minutes or so. Finally, her entire body jerked and her eyes snapped back to mine. They were filled with the light of excitement and understanding. "I got it!"

I jumped about a foot into the air. I'd been watching her as she thought because there was nothing else to do. Her snap back to reality scared the living daylights out of me. "Y-you got what?" I asked a bit shakily, putting my hand over my heart.

She looked a bit sheepish about scaring me. "I figured out how to find out what your gift is. You have to ask your mum. If anyone could help you, it would be she." The girl explained briefly.

"How did you figure that out?" I was impressed. I didn't even have to do anything to help.

"I analyzed what my gift was telling me about you. It's been pointing certain things out over the past few days. I was a bit confused by it, but as soon as you asked for my help I understood that what I was seeing and hearing would have something to do with what you needed help with."

I nodded, asking another question. "How will talking to my mum help?" Then something occurred to me. "Wait. Do you mean my biological mum or my adoptive one?"

"That's what you have to figure out." She smiled at me. "And think about it. Would your adoptive mum know what your gift would be?"

I blushed, feeling a little stupid for asking the second question. "Thanks for the help," I said as I stood up.

"Any time," Athena replied.

As I left her room, I thought about when I could meet my mother. She'd said that I could come over whenever I felt like it and she'd know. My weekend had been freed up by Thanatos, so I decided that I'd visit her on Saturday.

~! #$%^&*()_+

I had another sacrificial vision that night. It was pretty much the exact same as the others that I'd seen. The only difference was the name of the person being sacrificed.

"Goodbye Phoebe, after the Goddess of Light."

As the figure left the room, I caught the words that she murmured under her breath. "Serves you right for messing with me,"

A/N: Hmmm… any guesses as to what's going on? Things are getting strange with Thanatos. What did Phoebe do to get herself sacrificed? Only I know. What's worse: I take ages to update. *evil grin* … gosh; I just made myself laugh.

I'll try to explain the gift of knowledge more: it tells you to note something that's happening. For example, if someone was killed, the gift could give you some clue of where to find the evidence so that you could use that to find out who killed them. The gift doesn't tell you who killed the person, but it leads you to finding out on your own. I hope it makes more sense, even though I tried to write it in the chapter.

If anyone has one of the normal jobs mentioned in this chapter, I don't mean to offend you. These are Asteria's opinions, not mine.

As usual, feel free to ask questions and give criticism. I love it when people do that… XD

Thanks so much for the support everyone! (:

Tarah xXx


	11. Reconstruction

A/N: Hello!

I'm sorry, this isn't a chapter. I do have one ready for you guys, but it isn't totally relevant anymore. I would have Pmed all my readers, but I know that the readers who are truly interested in this story will read this anyway, so this is easier.

I've been talking to amai-chan1993 (my beta) and asking for tips to improve my story. Together, we pretty much changed the whole thing. I've also separated the chapters so that they're shorter, and now there will be twenty-three in stead of ten. I'm a bit busy with school right now, so I don't have too much time to edit it. I'll slowly pick away at it until I'm satisfied with my edits. You can expect it to be posted during my second week of March break (week 2 of March), but you know how I am with my personal deadlines… ;) If I post the chapter that I've written, it will give the entire of the new story away, so that's why I'm saving it for you. I promice that there will be many edits. The main part of the story itself will be the same, but there are a few things that really annoy me, and now's the best time to fix them since I've been looking at my story and writing style in general a lot lately.

I'm sorry to get anyone excited for nothing (well maybe it will be something). I promice that you'll hear from me soon with more updates and news.

Wishing you all the best,

Tarah xXx


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